Iceland: Its Scenes and Sagas

Front Cover
Smith, Elder and Company, 1863 - Birds - 447 pages

From inside the book

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 95 - Above me are the Alps, The palaces of Nature, whose vast walls Have pinnacled in clouds their snowy scalps, And throned Eternity in icy halls Of cold sublimity, where forms and falls The avalanche — the thunderbolt of snow ! All that expands the spirit, yet appals, Gather around these summits, as to show How Earth may pierce to Heaven, yet leave vain man below.
Page 189 - JACK and Jill went up the hill, To fetch a pail of water; Jack fell down and broke his crown And Jill came tumbling after.
Page 203 - ... through all the city, for the space almost of forty days, there were seen horsemen running in the air, in cloth of gold, and armed with lances, like a band of soldiers, and troops of horsemen in array, encountering and running one against another, with shaking of shields, and multitude of pikes, and drawing of swords, and casting of darts, and glittering of golden ornaments, and harness of all sorts. Wherefore every man prayed that that apparition might turn to good.
Page 23 - ... breast, ie a bare spot from which the feathers have fallen off with the heat in hatching; its egg is twice as big as that of a Solan goose, and is variously spotted, black, green, and dark ; it comes without regard 'to any wind, appears the first of May, and goes away about the middle of June.
Page 336 - And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely.
Page xlvi - And the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of his Majesty's Treasury, his Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, and the Judge of the High Court of Admiralty, and the Judges of the Courts of Vice- Admiralty, are to take the necessary measures herein, as to them may respectively appertain.
Page 325 - ... determine their relative strength. When this has been fairly ascertained, they advance to the brink of the precipice; and, taking each other by the tail, the weakest descends first, while the strongest, forming the last in the row, suspends the whole number, till the foremost has reached their prey. A signal is then given, on which the uppermost fox pulls with all his might, and the rest assist him as well as they can with their feet against the rocks; in this manner they proceed from rock to...
Page 364 - Five strokes underground were the signal, then an overflow, wetting every side of the mound. Presently a dome of water rose in the centre of the basin and fell again, immediately to be followed by a fresh bell, which sprang into the air full 40 feet high, accompanied by a roaring burst of steam.
Page 23 - Gairfowl, being the stateliest, as well as the largest sort, and above the size of a Solan goose, of a black colour, red about the eyes, a large white spot under each, a long broad bill...
Page 117 - The farmer was not exactly a chieftain ; but he was well enough connected to be considered respectable. To back up his gentility, he possessed numerous flocks of sheep, and a goodly drove of oxen. Thorhall would have been a happy man but for one circumstance, — his sheep-walks were haunted. Not a herdsman would remain with him. He bribed, threatened, entreated, all to no purpose. One shepherd after another left his service ; and things came to such a pass, that he determined on asking advice at...

Bibliographic information