A visit to Iceland by way of Tronyem, in the summer of 1834John Murray, 1835 - 120 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
appearance arrived basaltic basin Bessestad boat boiling called cattle chasm church clergy clothes coast colour column considerable Copenhagen Danish Danish merchants Denmark deposited depth distance dollars earth eruption feet fiord fish fuci Geyser governor ground guides harbour Havnefiord Hecla height hills Hooker horses Iceland Iceland horse inhabitants island journey kind Knudtzon labour land Laplanders lava lichen Menyanthes trifoliata miles morning mountain natives nearly nerally night Norway observed Olafsen and Povelsen Oresund passed peasantry pilot poor procured quantity racter Reikiavik remarkable rising river rix-dollars rock Röraas salmon says seen sheep shore side silica Sir George Mackenzie Sir John Stanley sketch Snæfell Snæfell Yokul snow soon species spot springs Stappen steam sulphur summit surface Syssel Thingvalla tion told took town travellers Troil Tronyem vessel volcanic voyage weather whole wind winter yacht
Popular passages
Page 293 - The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye, tongue, sword; The expectancy and rose of the fair state, The glass of fashion and the mould of form, The observed of all observers, quite, quite down!
Page 230 - Though poor the peasant's hut, his feasts though small, He sees his little lot the lot of all ; Sees no contiguous palace rear its head, To shame the meanness of his humble shed ; No costly lord the sumptuous banquet deal, To make him loathe his vegetable meal : But calm, and bred in ignorance and toil, Each wish contracting, fits him to the soil.
Page 223 - God, the father of slaughter, the God that carrieth desolation and fire; the active and roaring deity, he who giveth victory and reviveth courage in the conflict; who names those that are to be slain*.
Page 233 - Poets undoubtedly best can tell what poets feel ; and one of our greatest poets has said that " Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise, (That last infirmity of nohle minds,) To scorn delights, and live laborious days.
Page 237 - The door is not quite four feet in height, and the room may be about eight feet in length by six in breadth. At the inner end is the poet's bed, and close to the door, over against a small window not exceeding two feet square, is a table where he commits to paper the effusions of his muse.
Page 202 - I believe is entirely peculiar to this island. Two gentlemen, for instance, are riding together without attendants, and wishing to alight for the purpose of visiting some object at a distance from the road, they tie the head of one horse to the tail of another, and the head of this to the tail of the former. In this state it is utterly impossible that they can move on either backwards or forwards, one pulling one way and the other the other ; and therefore if disposed to move at all, it will be only...
Page xvii - Every blockhead does that: my grand tour shall be one round the whole globe.
Page 236 - Ever since I came into this world I have been wedded to Poverty, who has now hugged me to her bosom these seventy winters, all but two ; and whether we shall ever be separated here below is only known to Him who joined us together.
Page 182 - Knudtzon was as anxious as ourselves, — indeed so much so that he sat up all night, and fortunately he did so, for about three o'clock in the morning, when we were fast asleep, having been kept awake the greater part of the preceding night by the rumbling noise under the earth at different periods, he hastily entered the tent, and said, that from the incessant noise and violent rushing of the steam, he had no doubt that an eruption was about to take place.
Page 171 - On the margins of these little streams are found in abundance the roost extraordinary and beautiful incrustations that can be conceived, which, like those on the margin of the basin, would appear to be owing to the steam and spray that accompany the water, rather than to the water itself. Along the banks of these occasional streamlets the grasses and the various aquatic plants are all covered with incrustations, some of which were exquisitely beautiful, but so delicate that, with every possible care,...