... failures and the more mysterious—UFOs, witchcraft, devil's triangles, supernatural and other inexhaustible subjects, such as sleeping (pun intended).

It[Oil] was used to make kerosene, the main fuel for artificial lighting after overfishing led to a shortage of whale blubber.

epistolary style

In his vocabulary was no word for crocodile; yet in his thought, as potent as any utterable word, was an image of dreadful import— …