Enterprise, Industry and Art of Man: As Displayed in Fishing, Hunting, Commerce, Navigation, Mining, Agriculture and Manufactures

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Thomas, Cowperthwait, 1845 - 335 pages
 

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Page 36 - Whilst we follow them among the tumbling mountains of ice, and behold them penetrating into the deepest frozen recesses of Hudson's Bay and Davis's Straits, whilst we are looking for them beneath the arctic circle, we hear that they have pierced into the opposite region of polar cold, that they are at the antipodes, and engaged under the frozen serpent of the south.
Page 36 - Nor is the equinoctial heat more discouraging to them, than the accumulated winter of both the poles. We know that whilst some of them draw the line and strike the harpoon on the coast of Africa, others run the longitude, and pursue their gigantic game along the coast of Brazil. No sea but what is vexed by their fisheries. No climate that is not witness to their toils.
Page 77 - In less than a month the change is most extraordinary ; the whole region becomes a luxuriant wood of enormous thistles, which have suddenly shot up to a height of ten or eleven feet, and are all in full bloom. The road or path is hemmed in on both sides ; the view is completely obstructed ; not an animal is to be seen ; and the stems of the thistles are so close to each other, and so strong, that, independently of the prickles with which they are armed, they form an impenetrable barrier.
Page 62 - Few friends to cheer him in his dangerous life, And none to aid him in the stormy strife : Companion of the sea and silent air, The lonely fisher thus must ever fare ; Without the comfort, hope, with scarce a friend, He looks through life, and only sees — its end!
Page 77 - ... not an animal is to be seen ; and the stems of the thistles are so close to each other, and so strong, that independent of the prickles with which they are armed, they form an impenetrable barrier. The sudden growth of these plants is quite astonishing ; and though it would be an unusual misfortune in military history, yet it is really possible that, an invading army, unacquainted with this country, might be imprisoned by these thistles, before it had time to escape from them.
Page 61 - The other plan is, when a merchant, or any other, owning a vessel, lets her to ten or fifteen men on shares. He finds the vessel and nets. The men pay for all the provisions, hooks and lines, and for the salt necessary to cure their proportion of the fish. One of the number is acknowledged master ; but he has to catch fish as well as the others, and receives...
Page 63 - . Old majestic Sea ! Ever love I from shore to look on thee, And sometimes on thy billowy back to ride, And sometimes o'er thy summer breast to glide : But let me live on land — where rivers run, Where shady trees may screen me from the sun ; Where I may feel secure, the fragrant air ; Where whate'er toil or wearying pains I bear, Those eyes, which look away all human ill, May shed on me their still, sweet, constant light, And the little hearts I love, may day and night, Be found beside me, safe...
Page 128 - ... the net. In this manner ten, twenty, and even thirty dozen, have been caught at one sweep. Meantime the air is darkened with large bodies of them, moving in various directions ; the woods also swarm with them in search of acorns ; and the thundering of musketry is perpetual on all sides, from morning to night.
Page 16 - The blubber, in its fresh state, is without any unpleasant smell ; and it is not until after the termination of the voyage, when the cargo is unstowed, that a Greenland ship becomes disagreeable. Four tons of blubber, by measure, generally afford three tons of oil;* but the blubber of a sucker contains a very small proportion. Whales have been caught that afforded nearly thirty tons of pure oil ; and whales yielding twenty tons of oil are by no means uncommon.
Page 130 - Here the caves are only to be approached by a perpendicular descent of many hundred feet by ladders of bamboo and rattan over a sea rolling violently against the rocks. When the mouth of the cavern is attained, the perilous office of taking the nests must often be performed...

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