An Iceberg

Richard Henry Dana, Jr. was an American lawyer and politician. As a young man, he enlisted as a merchant marine, where he sailed from Boston to South America. On the way back to California, he went around Cape Horn in the middle of the Antarctic winter, where he experienced storms and the beauty of icebergs….

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Spring in Kentucky

James Lane Allen was an American writer. Born in Kentucky, his novels A Kentucky Cardinal and its continuation Aftermath tell the romantic journey of a young Kentucky naturalist, Adam Moss, with a society girl. In this selection from Chapters II and III of the former, he describes the spring season in that part of the…

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Eyes

Here is an extract from the book The Conduct of Life, a collection of essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson, transcribed in Simplified Gregg by me for the blog. Attachment: eyes.pdf

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A Glass of Cold Water

Paul Denton was a fictionalized account based on the life of John B. Denton, a pioneer Methodist preacher from Tennessee who went to Texas in 1837 and became a lawyer. In 1841 he went on to engage in Indian fighting; but unfortunately he was unsuccessful in this endeavor as he was the only Texas resident…

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The Natural Bridge

The Natural Bridge is, as the name implies, a natural limestone arch within a gorge formed by Cedar Creek, a 12-mile tributary of the James River in Virginia. While it was once owned by Thomas Jefferson, it is now a state park located approximately 140 west of Richmond and about 200 miles southwest of Washington,…

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Traces of the Ocean

Here is a selection from Chapter IX of the book First Impressions of England and Its People, by the Scottish geologist and writer Hugh Miller, about the ocean, “the great agent of change and dilapidation.” I transcribed it in Simplified Gregg for the blog. Attachment: traces-of-the-ocean.pdf

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Snow

For lots of people, precipitation in the form of snow is a certainty during the winter months. Here’s an interesting article transcribed by me in Centennial Gregg that describes some aspects about how snow is formed. Attachment: snow.pdf

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The Mont Blanc Road Tunnel

The Mont Blanc Road Tunnel connects France and Italy under the Mont Blanc mountain in the Alps. It links the city of Chamonix in France with Courmayeur in Italy. This tunnel is of paramount importance, both for commercial and recreational driving, as it reduces the time to travel between the two countries. This article details…

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