Lederer, while crossing South Carolina in 1670, found his farther progress barred by a “great lake,” which he puts on his map as “Ushery lake,” although there is no such lake in the state; but the mystery is explained by Lawson, who, in going over the same ground thirty years later, found all the bottom lands under water from a great flood, the Santee in particular being 36 feet above its normal level.
— from Myths of the Cherokee Extract from the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology by James Mooney

What, then, must in the nature of things be the more noticeable effects upon London and the population of London; upon its land values; upon its municipal debt, and its municipal assets; upon London as a labour market; upon the homes of its people; upon its open spaces, and upon the great undertakings which our socialistic and municipal reformers are at the present moment so anxious to secure?
— from Garden Cities of To-Morrow Being the Second Edition of "To-Morrow: a Peaceful Path to Real Reform" by Howard, Ebenezer, Sir

There was an unpleasantly harsh, morose, and unfriendly look about his lips, thick as a negro’s, his aquiline nose, and listless, apathetic eyes.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Sensations would leave no memorial; while logical thoughts would play idly, like so many parasites in the mind, and ultimately languish and die of inanition.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

Dr. Cassel gave mankind a useful lesson, a touching example, a glorious spectacle: he showed how a Christian Jew lives!
— from Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ by Aaron Bernstein

They employed, in their ceremonial observances, many of the implements of operative Masonry, and used, like the Masons, a universal language; and conventional modes of recognition, by which one brother might know another in the dark as well as the light , and which served to unite the whole body, wheresoever they might be dispersed, in one common brotherhood.
— from The Symbolism of Freemasonry Illustrating and Explaining Its Science and Philosophy, Its Legends, Myths and Symbols by Albert Gallatin Mackey

And, for I should not deal in her soft laws, She did corrupt frail nature with some bribe To shrink mine arm up like a wither'd shrub To make an envious mountain on my back, Where sits deformity to mock my body; To shape my legs of an unequal size; To disproportion me in every part, Like to a chaos, or an unlick'd bear-whelp That carries no impression like the dam.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

It was merely an upright “lingam,” at first, no larger than a stove-pipe, and stood in the midst of a shoreless ocean.
— from Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World by Mark Twain

The fragments of pottery from this mound are unusually large and well preserved, and exhibit a number of varieties of form and ornamentation.
— from Illustrated Catalogue of a Portion of the Collections Made During the Field Season of 1881 Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1881-82, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1884, pages 427-510 by William Henry Holmes

But in most of these matters between man and man, the Captain instead of being a magistrate, dispensing what the law promulgates, is an absolute ruler, making and unmaking law as he pleases.
— from White Jacket; Or, The World on a Man-of-War by Herman Melville

Percy makes an ugly lunge at his opponent with his fist, but merely as a threat.
— from My Lady Peggy Goes to Town by Frances Aymar Mathews

“That is so, maiden,” answered Umslopogaas, looking at her beauty.
— from Nada the Lily by H. Rider (Henry Rider) Haggard

He is gay, witty, gentle, and good-tempered, with such a high relish for humour and frolic as to lead him, through an over-indulgence of this propensity, into numerous scenes of dissipation and idleness, and into a familiarity with persons admirably well calculated, it is true, for the gratification of the most fertile and comic imagination, but who, in every moral and useful light, are altogether worthless and degraded.
— from Shakspeare and His Times [Vol. 2 of 2] Including the Biography of the Poet; criticisms on his genius and writings; a new chronology of his plays; a disquisition on the on the object of his sonnets; and a history of the manners, customs, and amusements, superstitions, poetry, and elegant literature of his age by Nathan Drake

At last, Holloway being the jail where first-class misdemeanants are usually lodged, application was made there; but the officials knew nothing whatever of Vizetelly, he had not been sent to them.
— from Émile Zola, Novelist and Reformer: An Account of His Life & Work by Ernest Alfred Vizetelly

You needn't make an uproar like a falling pine-tree about it.
— from The Pioneers; Or, The Sources of the Susquehanna by James Fenimore Cooper

In England the name Mastiff was not in general use till a much later date, even as late as the end of the eighteenth century, Osbaldiston in his Dictionary ignoring the term mastiff, and using, like a true Saxon, the [Pg 240] old term bandog (Wynn, p. 72).
— from The Master of Game: The Oldest English Book on Hunting by of Norwich Edward