Journal of a Tour in Iceland, in the Summer of 1809, Volume 1

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Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1813 - Botany - 371 pages

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Page lxxi - Right against the eastern gate, By the moss-grown pile he sate ; Where long of yore to sleep was laid The dust of the prophetic maid. Facing to the northern clime, Thrice he traced the Runic rhyme ; Thrice pronounced, in accents dread, The thrilling verse that wakes the dead : Till from out the hollow ground Slowly breathed a sullen sound.
Page 274 - The rocky summits, split and rent, Formed turret, dome, or battlement, Or seemed fantastically set With cupola or minaret, Wild crests as pagod ever decked, Or mosque of Eastern architect.
Page 40 - Maecenas, ulmisque adiungere vites conveniat, quae cura boum, qui cultus habendo sit pecori, apibus quanta experientia parcis, hinc canere incipiam.
Page 69 - In his own excuse, he* pleaded his age for not following our example, to which we could make no reply. We devoured with difficulty our eggs and cream ; but had no sooner dismissed our plates, than half a sheep, well roasted, came on, with a mess of sorrel (rumexacetosa,) called by the Danes scurvy-grass, boiled, mashed and sweetened with sugar.
Page 271 - Nullas Germanorum populis urbes habitari, satis notum est : ne pati quidem inter se junctas sedes. Colunt discreti ac diversi, ut fons, ut campus, ut nemus placuit. Vicos locant, non in nostrum morem, connexis et cohaerentibus aedificiis : suam quisque domum spatio circumdat, sive adversus casus ignis remedium, sive inscitia aedificandi.
Page 143 - On reaching the top of this siliceous mound, I looked into the perfectly circular basin, which gradually shelved down to the mouth of the pipe or crater in the centre, whence the water issued. This mouth lay about four or five feet "below the edge of the basin, and proved, on my afterwards measuring it, to be as nearly as possible seventeen feet distant from it oh every side; the greatest difference in the distance not being more than a foot.
Page 52 - ... bring it to the water's edge, and, after launching it, embark and place themselves round the heap, with their heads joined over it and their backs to the water, their tails pendent in the stream, serving the purpose of rudders.
Page 148 - And wide in air its misty volumes hurl'd Contagious atoms o'er the alarmed world: Nymphs, your bold myriads broke the infernal spell, And crush'd the sorceress in her flinty cell." In these two last lines the Doctor alludes, as he tells us in a note, to the eruption of a volcano which happened subsequently to the time of Sir Joseph Banks' be ing there, and which extended as far as the Geysers, and overflowed them with its lava.
Page li - ... giants. One day, as the sons of Bor, or the gods, were taking a walk, they found two pieces of wood floating upon the water; these they took, and out of them made a man and a woman. The eldest of the gods gave them life and souls; the second motion and knowledge; the third the gift of speech, hearing and sight, to which he added beauty and raiment. From this man and this woman, named Ask and Embla, is descended the race of men who are permitted to inhabit the earth.
Page liv - Then the powerful, the valiant, he who governs all things, comes forth from his lofty abodes, to render divine justice. He pronounces decrees. He establishes the sacred destinies which shall endure for ever. There is an abode remote from the sun, the gates of which face the north ; poison rains there through a thousand openings : this place is all composed of the carcasses of serpents : there run cerbu'n torrents, in which are plunged perjurers and assassins...

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