Jarl steals a keg of tobacco—
“From the Arcturion he had brought along with him a small half-keg, at bottom impacted with a solitary layer of sable Negrohead, fossil-marked, like the primary stratum of the geologists.” (Ahem! primary stratum fossil-marked!) p. 68.
He surmiseth that Samoa likes to get swipesy—
“Nor did I doubt but that the Upoluan, like all Polynesians, much loved getting high of head; and in that state would be more intractable than a Black Forest boar.”
Sometimes he breaks into hexameter:
“In the verdant glen of Ardair, far in the silent interior of Amma,
Shut in by hoar old cliffs, Yillah the maiden abode.”
This reminds one of Evangeline—
“In the Acadian land, on the shores of the basin of Minos,
Distant, secluded, still, the little village of Grand Pré