The wonders of the world

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“And lo! the mountains print the distant sky, And o’er their airy tops faint clouds are driven, So softly blending that the cheated eye, Forgets or which is earth, or which is h...

A journey up Etna is considered as an enterprise of importance, as well from the difficulty of the route, as from the distance, it being thirty miles from Catania to the summit...

In this state the eruption continued for several days, the fire being equally intense, with frequent and dreadful noises. On the twenty-eighth, amid these fearful symptoms, anot...

At a quarter before three o’clock in the afternoon, when the party reached the spot, they found the basin full of hot water, a little of which was running over. Having satisfied...

“The view of Geneva, the lake, and the Jura mountains from Coligny is much admired; and at sunset, perhaps the world can not offer a more lovely scene. It was here that Byron to...

“The impetuous arrested cataract seems as if it were plowing the rocky gorge with its turbulent surges. Indeed, the ridges of rocky fragments along the edges of the glacier, cal...

“Toward three in the morning, by the sombrous light of a few fir torches, we began our expedition for the summit of the Piton. We scaled the volcano on the north-east, where the...

“About two thousand feet from the level of the sea, on the south side of the mountain, and at rather more than two-thirds of its hight, opens a circular chasm, somewhat exceedin...

“After gazing at the wonderful and wonderfully sublime scene for some twenty hours, taking but a little time for repose, we found the sense of fear subsiding, and curiosity prom...

The path now leads to a place whimsically called the Devil’s Cellar and Half-way House, and thence, by three natural and regular arches, to a vast concavity, which, from its uni...

Derbyshire is everywhere fruitful in natural curiosities, among the most striking of which may be reckoned the moors of Hope parish, inasmuch as they afford an extraordinary ins...

The base of the interior cone is separated from the steep sides of the ancient crater by a circular valley, which terminates on one side at the junction of the two mountains, an...

“It is easy to write of rocks and wilds, of torrents and precipices; it is easy to tell of the awe such scenes inspire: this style and these descriptions are common and hackneye...

“Imagine an immense body of smoke rising from the sea, the surface of which was marked by the slippery rippling of the waves, occasioned by the light and steady breezes incident...

Among the various subterranean wonders of the world, which are worthy of special notice, we would first mention the “Grotta del Cane.” This name has been given to a small cavern...

A narrow and most difficult passage, twenty feet in length, leads from this cavern to another, twenty-five feet in hight, which is everywhere beset with teeth, bones and stalact...

“I can not undertake to give the details of our route from avenue to avenue, nor mention the various points of interest that we passed. We were at length in a vast open space; t...

In conclusion it may be interesting to state, that Colonel Croghan, to whose family the Mammoth cave belongs, was a resident of Louisville, Kentucky. He went to Europe some twen...

The caverns of Gibraltar are numerous, and several of them of great extent. The one more particularly deserving attention is called St. Michael’s cave, situated on the southern...

Another circumstance tending to enhance the value of the diamond is, that although small stones are sufficiently abundant to be within the reach of moderate expenditure, and the...

Turning to Europe, Dalmatia is said in ancient times to have produced an abundance of gold. Pliny reports that in the reign of the emperor Nero, fifty pounds of this precious me...

The subterraneous passages of the great mine are so extensive, that it would require several hours to pass through them. The greatest perpendicular depth, computing from the ent...

In 1846-7, we find by the treasury report, that the United States exported of domestic manufactures, 3,197,135 pounds of nails, worth $168,817, of which Cuba took 2,317,550 poun...

Among the most remarkable lead mines of the world, may be mentioned those of the state of Illinois, including also parts of Iowa and Wisconsin, which have been, and still are im...

Felling is a manor about a mile and a half east of Gateshead. It contains several strata of coal, the uppermost of which were extensively wrought in the beginning of the last ce...

In many of these beds of argillaceous stone, a portion of salt, sufficiently strong to affect the taste, is found to exist; and this saltness increases, as might be expected, in...

The vast islands of floating ice which abound in the high southern latitudes, are a proof that they are visited by a much severer degree of cold than equal latitudes toward the...

Among the phenomena which have long exercised the sagacity of philosophers, that of the luminous appearance of the surface of the sea, during the obscurity of the night, is high...

From the eminence entitled the Table rock, the spectator has a fine prospect of the terrific rapids above the falls, and of the surrounding shores, embellished with lofty woods....

“The general form of the falls is slowly changing from age to age. When Father Hennepin saw them, a century and three-quarters ago, they presented little of that curved and inde...

This river is nine hundred feet wide at the point where it receives the waters of Medicine river, which is four hundred and one feet in width. The united current continues five...

“We have no doubt whatever that Winefrid White was cured by her journey to Holywell, and by bathing in the wonderful natural spring at that place; but we are not credulous enoug...

Near Point la Braye, (Tar point,) the name assigned to it on account of its characteristic feature, in the island of Trinidad, is a lake which at the first view appears to be an...

“Whatever may be the origin of these luminous meteors, it is difficult to conceive any instantaneous inflammation taking place in a region where there is less air than in the va...

On the fourth of October, of the above year, 1783, two meteors were seen in England. The first, at three in the morning, on account of the early hour, was witnessed by but few s...

At Naples, on the sixteenth of December, 1737, early in the evening, a light was observed in the north, as if the air was on fire, and flashing. Its intenseness gradually increa...

These optical appearances of figures in the sea and air, in the Faro of Messina, are the great delight of the populace, who, whenever the vision is displayed, run about the stre...

Lightning strikes the highest and most pointed objects in its way, in preference to others, as high hills, trees, spires, masts, &c.; and all pointed conductors receive and thro...

In the West Indies, a tremendous hurricane on the twenty-first of October, 1817, was particularly severe at the island of St. Lucie. All the vessels in the port were entirely lo...

Before passing on to the buried cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii, it may be as well to notice a singular phenomenon, supposed by some to be of volcanic origin, _viz._, the Yana...

A corn-field leads to the excavated upper end of the high street, which consists of a narrow road for carts, with foot-pavements on each side. The middle is paved with large blo...

“But the family of Diomede sought refuge from the falling pumice under the strong arch of the wine-cellar, strong enough to resist and sustain the load of falling materials, but...

“Utensils in earthen ware are abundant, but porcelain seems to have been unknown to the Romans. Blown and molded glass of various forms and colors, and designed for various uses...

Among the most powerful and extraordinary of these effects earthquakes are to be reckoned. They are unquestionably the most dreadful of the phenomena of nature, and are not conf...

The terrors of the surviving inhabitants were great and multiplied. Amid the general confusion, and through a scarcity of hands, the dead bodies could not be buried, and it was...

At sea the shocks of this earthquake were felt most violently. Off St. Lucar, the captain of the Nancy frigate felt his ship so violently shaken, that he thought she had struck...

Several hills were either divided or laid level; and within the surface of the earth apertures were made, from which a great quantity of water, proceeding either from subterrane...

This grand arrangement extends nearly two hundred yards, as it is visible at low water; but how far beyond is uncertain: from its declining appearance, however, at low water, it...

At the distance of sixty feet below is another, to which the traveler is conducted by a path descending along the edge of the chasm. Three enormous masses of rock have fallen in...

At midnight the sun still remained several degrees above the horizon, and continued to ascend higher and higher till noon, when having again descended, it passed the north, with...

“I now descended toward a rude space near the river, which appeared to be in the state in which the occasional overflowings and gradual retrocession of the river had left it. It...

In France, where it is well known that living elephants have been much less frequent, at least in times of which we have any record, than either in Italy or Greece, their fossil...

These islets extended about twelve miles in length, and one in breadth, opposite the shore of Sutton, at which place, on digging a well, a moor of the same nature was found unde...

In Africa, as well as Asia, there are immense tracts of land called deserts, which consist of vast plains composed of loose sand. Large portions of these are utterly destitute o...

The passage across the Nubian desert, is, in its general features, the same as that over the great desert of Sahara. The following narrative is somewhat abridged from Bayard Tay...

“The next morning we started joyfully, in hope of seeing the Nile; and even Eyoub, for the first time since leaving Korosko, helped to load the camels. In an hour we passed the...

To the above account by the accurate Denon, we subjoin the following pleasing one by the celebrated Dr. Clarke. The impression made by these monuments, when viewed at a distance...

“In returning, in about an hour and a half we reached the ruined pyramids of Abousir, where our path turned southward into the desert. After seeing Cheops and Cephrenes, these p...

“We reached them after a walk of about four miles. They stand upon a narrow, crescent-shaped hill, which rises forty or fifty feet from the plain, presenting its convex front to...

Passing out, toward the south, from modern Alexandria, one of the first objects that greets the eye of the traveler, is Pompey’s pillar, which rears its stupendous mass of polis...

The tombs of the kings of Thebes are grottos consisting of a regular double gallery supported by pillars, behind which is a row of chambers, often double. In proportion as the h...

“We waited till the yellow rays of sunset fell on the capitals of the Memnonium, and they seemed, like the lotus flowers, to exhale a vapory light, before we rode home. All nigh...

“I stood in Karnak, under the light of the full moon. It was an hour for silence, and we enjoined this upon each other, and gave ourselves to solitary musing. The cuckoo, that h...

The temple of Dendera (formerly Tentyra) is on the western bank of the Nile, nearly opposite Kenneh. Passing from the latter place, the path of the traveler leads through a palm...

Though the river Nile is properly to be classified with the wonders of nature, rather than with those of art, yet as it is so intimately and constantly associated with the wonde...

“Having entered the cavern by the grand portico, the traveler proceeds in obscurity to the distance of eighteen paces, when he at length perceives a ray of light proceeding from...

Speaking of the Babylonian bricks, and their variety in respect to size, color, hardness, &c., Mr. Rich tells us, that the general size of the kiln-burnt brick is thirteen inche...

Proceeding from this toward the mountains, situated in the rear of the great hall of columns, stand the remains of a magnificent room. Here are still left walls, frames and port...

“As we rode toward the sea of Tiberias, the guides pointed to a sloping spot from the hights upon our right, whence we had descended, as the place where the miracle was accompli...

“The reflected light gave them a white appearance. The Parthenon appeared first, above a long chain of hills in the front; presently we saw the top of Mount Anchesmus, to the le...

The object in Pegu that most attracts and most merits notice, says Mr. Symes in his “Embassy to Ava,” is the noble edifice of Shoemadoo, or the Golden Supreme. This extraordinar...

The Roman emperors who succeeded Titus were careful of the preservation of this superb edifice: even the voluptuous Heliogabalus caused it to be repaired after a great fire. The...

This elegant structure consists of three bridges, or tiers of arches, one above another; the first of six, the second of eleven, and the third of thirty-six arches. The hight, c...

The force and hight of these seas are increased by the fact that the rocks stretch across the channel, in a direction north and south, to the length of above one hundred fathoms...

The more prevalent and probable opinion, on the subject, seems to be this: that they were erected by the Phœnicians or Carthaginians, who are known to have had settlements in Ir...

But by far the most magnificent church edifice in all France, is the cathedral of Strasburg, a view of which is given in the cut, and which is famous all over the world. Till th...

The bank of England covers an extent of more than eight acres, and is completely insulated. Its shape is that of an irregular parallelogram, the longest side of which measures f...

In addition to the various curiosities enumerated above, Professor Silliman mentions many others which have been contributed to the museum more recently; and more fully describe...

“Four hours are allowed for the inspection of the rooms and of their contents: and this time we employed most industriously, passing through the apartments with painful rapidity...

The rapid and unexpected increase of the applications of exhibitors, induced the association to erect a large addition to the building already described. It consists of two part...

“As to the contents of the palace, it is impossible to enumerate them. A mere catalogue, with the most brief descriptive notices, would fill a large volume. I can only mention g...

This celebrated monument, a view of which is given in the cut on the next page, is in the town of Charlestown, Mass., on the hill where the first battle was fought between the p...

This wonder of modern engineering, a view of which is given in the cut, forms part of the railroad from Chester to Holyhead, and is thrown over the Menai strait which separates...

The establishment of railroad communication has given rise, both in this country and Europe, to some stupendous undertakings in the way of tunneling; one or two of which are wor...

In another room, is seen a most beautiful steam-engine, which drives all the rolling and stamping machinery. It is of one hundred horse-power, and works the rolling machinery, t...

In 1793, Fulton, the celebrated engineer, engaged actively in endeavoring to improve inland navigation. Even at that early period, he had conceived the idea of propelling vessel...

Quite recently, in boring an artesian well in Livingston, Alabama, an _egg_ was brought up from the depth of three hundred and thirty-five feet below the surface, of which dista...

Passing from California to the countries of the east, let us next glance at the palm-tree. This tree, which is called by Linnæus, from its noble and stately appearance, “the pri...

Passing on, over various improvements, we come, last of all, to what thus far is the perfection of all printing-machines, _viz._, _Hoe’s eight-cylinder power-press_, a view of w...

These curious and wonderful insects are found both in India and Africa. They are of several species, one or two of which construct works surpassing in skill those even of the be...

The most remarkable fact connected with the history of ants, is the propensity possessed by certain species to kidnap the workers of other species, and compel them to labor for...