tiarum attinet, quando per montes polo subiectos cathenam illam
montium intelligimus, qui ad septentrionem spectant tanti, & tam vasti, ac
Ferri & Magnetis feraces: qui, & si magis distant a nostro mari, [~q] Iluae
insulae montes, potentiores tamen sunt ad mouendum perpendiculum propter
abundantiam & copia Ferri, & Magnetis. Fortasse autem, & qui in Ilua est
Magnes, non multae actionis est in ea minera: multi enim d[~u] in minera
sunt, minus valent, [~q] extracti, [~q] spirituales species sua habeant
impedimenta: signum autem parum valere in sua minera Iluae insulae
Magnetem, [~q] tam propinquus quum sit nauigijs illac praetereuntibus,
perpendiculum tamen non ad se c[~o]uertit."

Aldrovandi in the _Musaeum Metallicum_ (Bonon., 1648, p. 554) gives another
version of the fable:

"Nonnulli, animadversa hac Magnetis natura, scripserunt naves, quibus in
Calecutanam regionem navigatur, clavis ferreis non figi, ob magneticorum
frequentiam scopulorum, quoniam facile dissolverentur. Sed Garzias in
Historia Aromatum id fabulosum esse tradidit: quandoquidem plures naues
Calecutanae regionis, & illius tractus, ferreis clauis iunctas obseruauit:
immo addidit naues in insulis Maldiuis ligneis quidem clauis copulari, non
quia a Magnete sibi metuant, sed quoniam ferri inopia laborant."

According to Aldrovandi (p. 563, _op. citat._) the magnetic mountains are
stated by Sir John Mandeville to be in the region of Pontus.

Lipenius in his _Navigatio Salomonis Ophritica illustrata_ (Witteb., 1660),
which is a mine of curious learning, in discussing the magnetic mountains
quotes the reply of Socrates to the inquirer who asked him as to what went
on in the infernal regions, saying that he had never been there nor had he
ever met any one who had returned thence.

The loadstone rock figures in several early charts. In Nordenskioeld's
_Facsimile Atlas_ (Stockholm, 1889) is given a copy of the Map of Johan
Ruysch from an edition of Ptolemy, publisht in Rome in 1508, which shows
four islands within the ice-bound Arctic regions. South of these islands
and at the east of the coast of Greenland is the inscription: _Hic
compassus navium non tenet, nec naves quae ferrum tenent revertere valent._
To which (on p. 63) Nordenskioeld adds the comment: _Sagan on magnetberg,
som skulle draga till sig fartyg foerande jern, aer gamal._ And he recalls
the reference of Ptolemy to the magnetic rocks in the Manioles. A second
inscription is added to Ruysch's ma