The night was as black as the bottom of a well; but the prodigious swelling and flinging of white waters hove a faintness upon the air that was in its way a dim light, by which it was just possible to distinguish the reeling masts to the height of the tops, and to observe the figure of the brig springing black and trembling out of the head of a surge that had broken over and smothered her as in a cauldron, and to note the shapes of the nearer liquid Acclivities as they bore down upon our weather bow, catching the brig fair under the bluff, and so sloping her that she seemed to stand end on, and so heeling her that the sea would wash to the height of the main hatch.
"The Frozen Pirate"
W. Clark Russell
After crossing three rather important channels, I turned to the N. E., and fortunately came upon the river, where the ground was very open, and the Acclivities gentle.
"Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia In Search of a Route from Sydney to the Gulf of Carpentaria (1848) by Lt. Col. Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell Kt. D.C.L. (1792-1855) Surveyor-General of New South Wales"
Thomas Mitchell
At last, after a hearty enjoyment of the bold and beautiful scenery for two hours and more, winding snakelike about the steep Acclivities, and diving into and out of dark, gloomy tunnels, we landed in the old and picturesque capital of the central province.
"The Pearl of India"
Maturin M. Ballou