The Mediterranean: A Memoir Physical, Historical, and Nautical

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John W. Parker and Son, 1854 - 519 pages
 

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Page vi - The grand object of travelling is to see the shores of the Mediterranean. On those shores were the four great empires of the world ; the Assyrian, the Persian, the Grecian, and the Roman. All our religion, almost all our law, almost all our arts, almost all that sets us above savages, has come to us from the shores of the Mediterranean.
Page 280 - The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits. All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.
Page 177 - ... but I, as a sailor, never perceived any difference between the effect of the surges here, and on any other coast, yet I have frequently watched it closely in bad weather. It is now, as I presume it ever was, a common rock, of bold approach, a little worn at its base, and surmounted by a castle, with a sandy bay on each side.
Page 258 - The swift volution, and th' enormous train, Let sages vers'd in nature's lore explain. The horrid apparition still draws nigh, And white with foam the whirling surges fly.
Page 502 - Merchant and the Friar; or, Truths and Fictions of the Middle Ages. By Sir F.
Page 177 - In the writings of so exquisite a bard, we must not expect to find all his representations strictly confined to a mere accurate narration of facts. Moderns of intelligence, in visiting this spot, have gratified their imaginations, already heated by such descriptions as the escape of the Argonauts, and the disasters of Ulysses, with fancying it the scourge of seamen, and, that in a gale its caverns
Page 239 - What gusts of weather from that gath'ring cloud My thoughts presage ! Ere yet the tempest roars, Stand to your tackle, mates, and stretch your oars ; Contract your swelling sails, and luff to wind.
Page 179 - Rainiere, that forms the harbour of Messina, lies the Galofaro, or celebrated vortex of Charybdis, which has, with more reason than Scylla, been clothed with terrors by the writers of antiquity.
Page 166 - From Syria to the Archipelago, there is a constant current to the westward, slightly felt at sea, but very perceptible near the shore, along this part of which...
Page 255 - ... by those who have witnessed it : — From a dense cloud a cone descends, in the form of a trumpet, with the small end downwards: at the same time, the surface of the sea under it is agitated and whirled round, the...

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