A System of Geography, Popular and Scientific: Or A Physical, Political, and Statistical Account of the World and Its Various Divisions, Volume 1

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A. Fullarton and Company, 1832

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Page 258 - Maternal Nature ! for who teems like thee, Thus on the banks of thy majestic Rhine? There Harold gazes on a work divine, A blending of all beauties; streams and dells, Fruit, foliage, crag, wood, cornfield, mountain, vine, And chiefless castles breathing stern farewells From gray but leafy walls, where Ruin greenly dwells.
Page lxxii - ... of several thousands of pilasters, all equal in altitude, distance, and degree of light and shade. In a moment they lost half their height, and bent into arcades, like Roman aqueducts. A long cornice was next formed on the top, and above it rose castles innumerable, all perfectly alike. These soon split into towers, which were shortly after lost in colonnades, then windows, and at last ended in pines, cypresses, and other trees, even and similar.
Page 91 - Its vibrations seemed the rolling of distant thunder; and they were instantly accompanied by the noise of all the bells in Moscow. Every inhabitant was stirring, and the rattling of carriages in the streets was greater than at noon-day. The whole city was in a blaze; for lights were seen in all the windows, and innumerable torches in the streets.
Page lxxii - On the 15th of August, 1643, as I stood at my window, I was surprised with a most wonderful delectable vision. The sea that washes the Sicilian shore swelled up and became, for ten miles in length, like a chain of dark mountains ; while the waters near our Calabrian coast grew quite smooth, and in an instant appeared as one clear polished mirror, reclining against the ridge.
Page 149 - The work is no sooner begun, than one of the family, selected on purpose, advances to a seat near the lamp, and commences the evening lecture, which generally consists of some old saga, or such other histories as are to be obtained on the island. Being but badly supplied with printed books, the Icelanders are under the necessity of copying such as they can get the loan of, which sufficiently accounts for the fact, that most of them write a hand equal in beauty to that of the ablest writing-masters...
Page lxviii - ... but the land and water are cooled by this operation in a very different manner : the impression of cooling on the land is limited to the surface, and very slowly transmitted to the interior ; whereas in water above...
Page 198 - Lapland, is no longer heard in this scene of desolation ; the ruggedness of the dark grey rock is not covered by a single shrub ; the only music is the hoarse murmuring of the waves, ever and anon renewing their assaults on the huge masses that oppose them. The northern sun, creeping at midnight at the distance of five diameters along the horizon, and the immeasurable ocean, in apparent contact with the skies, form the grand outlines in the sublime picture presented to the astonished spectator.
Page 91 - The walls, ceilings, and every part of this building, is covered by the pictures of Saints and Martyrs. In the moment of our arrival the doors were shut; and on the outside appeared Plato, the archbishop, preceded by banners and torches, and followed by all his train of priests, with crucifixes and censers, who...
Page lxxvi - Tvil h those in which fire-balls move ; more especially as Dr. Blagden informs us, that instances are recorded, in which the northern lights have been seen to join, and form luminous balls, darting about with great velocity, and even leaving a train behind like the common fire-balls. This...
Page 96 - ... by our guide arriving to inform us the priest was waiting to conduct us to the relics. We descended a long staircase en ramp, to the mouth of the sacred catacomb, being formed into a regular procession, and each bare-headed, carrying a lighted taper in his hand. It was a labyrinth mined in the solid rock, consisting of walks, chambers, branches, &c., ascending and descending for the distance of several hundred yards; the passage about six feet wide, and coved at the top ; its sides neatly plastered...

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