WeRead Powered by ReaderPub
In Search of El Dorado: A Wanderer's Experiences cover

In Search of El Dorado: A Wanderer's Experiences

Chapter 26: Transcriber's Note
By Alexander MacDonald
Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

AdventureTravel Writing

About This Book

The narrator recounts a series of firsthand prospecting voyages in the pursuit of gold and gemstones across remote regions, from northern gold-rush trails and mountain passes to arid Australian deserts and New Guinea's tropical forests. He combines practical geographic and mining detail with episodic accounts of danger, hardship, and narrow escapes, and sketches the bonds of comradeship forged by shared peril. Interspersed with observations on colonial opportunity and the island's mineral promise, the narrative blends travel description, fieldcraft, and reflective passages on courage, endurance, and the elusive lure of treasure.

The Gresham Press,
 UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED,
WOKING AND LONDON.

Siberia:

A Record of Travel, Climbing, and Exploration.

By SAMUEL TURNER, F.R.G.S.

WITH A PREFACE BY BARON HEYKING.
With more than 100 Illustrations, and with 2 Maps.

Demy 8vo, cloth, 21/-net.

The materials for this book were gathered during a journey in Siberia in 1903. Helped by over 100 merchants (Siberian, Russian, Danish and English) the writer was able to collect much information, and observe the present social and industrial condition of the country. The trade and country life of the mixed races of Siberia is described, and valuable information is given about their chief industry (dairy produce), which goes far to dissipate the common idea that Siberia is snow-bound, and to show that it is now one of the leading agricultural countries in the world.

The author describes his unaccompanied climbs in the mountains which he discovered in the Kutunski Belki range in the Altai, about 800 miles off the Great Siberian Railway line from a point about 2,500 miles beyond Moscow. He made a winter journey of 1,600 miles on sledge, drosky, and horseback, 250 miles of this journey being through country which has never been penetrated by any other European even in summer. He also describes 40 miles of what was probably the most difficult winter exploration that has ever been undertaken, proving that even the rigour of a Siberian winter cannot keep a true mountaineer from scaling unknown peaks.

The volume is elaborately illustrated from photographs by the author.

"To the trader and to the explorer, and to many who are neither, but who love to read books of travel and to venture in imagination into wild places of the earth, this book is heartily to be commended. It is lively, entertaining, instructive. It throws fresh light on the Empire of the Czars. Above all, it is a record of British pluck."—Scotsman.

LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN.

John Chinaman at Home
By the Rev. E. J. HARDY,
Author of "How to be Happy though Married"; lately Chaplain
to H.M. Forces in Hong Kong.

With 36 Illustrations. Demy 8vo, cloth, 10/6 net.
CONTENTS.

Hong Kong; Tientsin and Peking; Canton; On the West River; Swatow, Amoy, Foochow; Up the Yangtze; Village Life; Topsy-turvy; Some Chinese Characteristics; Chinese Food; Medicine and Surgery; Chinese Clothes; Houses and Gardens; Chinese Servants; Betrothal and Marriage; Death and Burial; Mourning; Education in China; Boys in China; Girls and Women; Chinese Manners; Government in China; Punishments; Chinese Soldiers; The Religions of China; Outside and Inside a Temple; New Year's Day; Monks and Priests; Spirits; Feng shiu and other Superstitions; Missionaries; as the Chinese See Us.

The reader will not be bored with politics or the "future of China," for the book only treats of the common every-day things of the Chinese which seem so peculiar to us. These are described and, when possible, explained. Anecdotes are freely used to illustrate.

LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN.

Demy 8vo, cloth, 21/-

Somerset House, Past and Present

By RAYMOND NEEDHAM and
ALEXANDER WEBSTER.

With Photogravure Frontispiece and many Illustrations.

This book deals with the history of Somerset House from its foundation by the Lord Protector in 1547 to the present day. It is as far as possible a continuous record of the events which in times gone by gathered illustrious personages within the walls of the old palace and made it a centre of English social life. For two centuries Somerset House was the home of Queens and Princesses; it was associated with the stalwart Protestants of the Reformation and the intriguing Catholics of the Revolution; it has passed through greater vicissitudes than almost any other secular edifice in London. The modern building housed the early exhibitions of the Royal Academy of Arts, a Naval Museum, the Royal and other learned Societies, until, within the last fifty years, it was given over to its present occupants and the matter-of-fact romance of the Imperial Revenue. The history includes the story of King's College, which since its inauguration has occupied a building erected on the eastern edge of the site, and designed to harmonise with the main structure. The volume is illustrated by reproductions of rare old prints and a fine series of modern photographs.

LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN.

Demy 8vo, cloth, 10/6 net.

The Age of the Earth, and
other Geological Studies

By W. J. SOLLAS, LL.D., D.Sc., F.R,S.

Professor of Geology in the University of Oxford

Illustrated.

This volume, while written by one of the foremost of English geologists, will be found interesting and attractive by the reader who has no special knowledge of the science. The essay which gives the book its title sets forth the bearing of the doctrine of evolution on geological speculation, and particularly on the vexed question of our planet's antiquity. The subjects of the other studies include the following: The Figure of the Earth, and the Origin of the Ocean; Geologies and Deluges; the Volcanoes of the Lipari Isles; the History and Structure of a Coral Reef; the Origin and Formation of Flints; the Evolution of Freshwater Animals; and the Influence of Oxford on Geology.

"They range over a great variety of subjects, including many which are of sufficiently wide interest to bring the geologist into sympathetic touch with the general reader. What educated man can fail to be interested in such subjects, for instance, as the age of the earth, the building of coral islands, the cause of volcanic action, or the Deluge? Of all these matters the Professor discourses pleasantly and well, writing with command of much scientific learning, yet always readably, sometimes with brilliancy of diction, and occasionally with a touch of humour."—Athenæum.

LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN.

Six Standard Works.
COMPLETE POPULAR EDITIONS. ILLUSTRATED.
Large Crown 8vo, Cloth. Price 2/6 net.
The Life of Richard Cobden.
By John Morley.
   "One of the most important and interesting works of its class in the English language,"—Daily Chronicle.
The Life and Times of Savonarola.
By Professor Pasquale Villari.
   "The most interesting religious biography that we know of in modern times. It is difficult to speak of its merits without seeming exaggeration."—Spectator.
The Life and Times of Machiavelli.
By Professor Pasquale Villari.
   "Machiavelli is represented for all time in the pages of Villari."—Guardian.
The Lives of Robert and Mary Moffat.
By John Smith Moffat.
   "A loving record of a noble life, which has left the world a lesson for all time of the power of earnest labour and simple faith."—Daily Chronicle.
The History of Florence.
By Professor Pasquale Villari.
   "This volume is indeed worthy of the reputation of its author.... We feel very grateful to him for having given us the most concise, and at the same time perhaps the most complete constitutional history that has yet appeared of the first two centuries of the Florentine Republic."—Speaker.
English Wayfaring Life in the
Middle Ages (XIVth Century).
By J. J. Jusserand, French Ambassador at Washington
   "One of those enchanting volumes which only Frenchmen have the gift of writing. Buy it if you are wise, and keep it as a joy for ever."—Dr Augustus Jessopp in the Nineteenth Century.
T. FISHER UNWIN, Publisher
1, Adelphi Terrace, London, W.C.
Standard Works.
COMPLETE POPULAR EDITIONS. ILLUSTRATED
Large Crown 8vo, Cloth. Price 2/6 net.
Lord Beaconsfield: A Biography.
By T. P. O'Connor
   "Clever and brilliant.... Worth reading by everybody who either admires or hates his subject."—Guardian
   "A slashing and vastly interesting book."—Pall Mall Gazette.
Rome and Pompeii. Archæological Rambles.
By Gaston Boissier.
   "M. Gaston Boissier is one of the few living archæologists who can make the dead bones of the past live again. While his researches show the accuracy and thoroughness which we associate with German scholarship, he has a gift of exposition which is wholly French. We can imagine therefore, no better handbook for traveller or archæologist than this one.—Daily Mail.
Holyoake: Sixty Years of an Agitator's Life.
By George Jacob Holyoake.
   "A valuable contribution to the political, social, intellectual, and even revolutionary history of our time."—Times.
   "The book is full of interest; it produces a vivid, personal impression, it contains contemporary notes on men and women of the century, it has shrewd and vigorous sentences, and illustrates our own progress in civilising thought."—Spectator.
Sir Walter Raleigh.
By Major Martin A. S. Hume.
   "An admirable book which ought to be read by every one who takes any interest in things that ought to interest all—the building of the Empire and the men who built it. There is not a dull page in it, and with his skilful telling of it, the story of Raleigh's life and of his times reads like a romance."—Pall Mall Gazette.
T. FISHER UNWIN, Publisher
1, Adelphi Terrace, London, W.C.
The Mermaid Series.
THE BEST PLAYS OF THE OLD DRAMATISTS.
Literal Reproductions of the Old Text.
Printed on thin Paper. Small Crown 8vo, each Volume containing about
500 Pages and an Etched Frontispiece.
Cloth, 2s. 6d. net.      Leather, 3s. 6d. net.
   The Best Plays of Christopher Marlowe. Edited, with Critical Memoir and Notes, by Havelock Ellis; and containing a General Introduction to the Series by John Addington Symonds.
   The Best Plays of Thomas Otway. Introduction and Notes by the Hon. Roden Noel.
   The Complete Plays of William Congreve. Edited by Alex. C Ewald.
   The Complete Plays of Richard Steele. Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by G. A. Aitken.
   The Best Plays of Ben Jonson. Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by Brinsley Nicholson and C. H. Herford. 3 vols.
   The Best Plays of James Shirley. With Introduction by Edmund Gosse.
   The Best Plays of Thomas Shadwell. Edited by George Saintsbury.
   The Complete Plays of William Wycherley. Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by W. C. Ward.
   The Best Plays of John Ford. Edited by Havelock Ellis.
   The Best Plays of Webster and Tourneur. With an Introduction and Notes, by John Addington Symonds.
   The Best Plays of Thomas Heywood. Edited by A. W. Verity. With Introduction by J. A. Symonds.
   The Best Plays of John Dryden. Edited by George Saintsbury. 2 vols.
   The Best Plays of Thomas Middleton. With an Introduction by Algernon Charles Swinburne. 2 vols.
   Nero and other Plays. Edited by H. P. Horne, Arthur Symons, A. W. Verity, and H. Ellis.
   The Best Plays of Thomas Dekker. Notes by Ernest Rhys.
   The Best Plays of Philip Massinger. With Critical and Biographical Essays and Notes by Arthur Symons. 2 vols.
   The Best Plays of Beaumont and Fletcher. With Introduction and Notes by T. St Loe Strachey. 2 vols.
   The Best Plays of George Chapman. Edited by William Lyon Phelps.
   The Select Plays of Sir John Vanbrugh. Edited, with an Introduction and Notes, by A. E. H. Swain.

THE TIMES, 20th November 1903, in a Review of a column and a quarter, says—
   
"Mr Fisher Unwin is re-issuing his 'Mermaid Series' of Old Dramatists in a very attractive form. The volumes are light in the hand and will go easily into the pocket; they are printed in clear type on thin paper; ideal companions for the student who seeks his pleasure where the Saint found it, 'in angulo cum libello.'"

THE PALL MALL GAZETTE says—
   
"It is impossible to let the completion of this reissue go by without congratulating every one concerned, including the reader, on the possibility of obtaining the cream of England's dramatic literature in this convenient form."
T. Fisher Unwin, Publisher, 1, Adelphi Terrace, London, W.C.
T. FISHER UNWIN, Publisher,
THE ADVENTURE SERIES
POPULAR RE-ISSUE.
Each large crown 8vo, fully illustrated. Popular re-issue,
3s. 6d. per vol.

1. ADVENTURES OF A YOUNGER SON.  By Edward J. Trelawney. Introduction by Edward Garnett.

2. MADAGASCAR;  or, Robert Drury's Journal during his Captivity on that Island. Preface and Notes by Captain S. P. Oliver, R.A..

3. MEMOIRS OF THE EXTRAORDINARY MILITARY CAREER OF JOHN SHIPP..

4. THE BUCCANEERS AND MAROONERS OF AMERICA.  Edited and Illustrated by Howard Pyle.

5. THE LOG OF A JACK TAR:  Being the Life of James Choyce, Master Mariner. Edited by Commander V. Lovett Cameron.

6. FERDINAND MENDEZ PINTO, THE PORTUGUESE ADVENTURER.  New Edition. Annotated by Prof. A. Vambéry.

7. ADVENTURES OF A BLOCKADE RUNNER.  By William Watson. Illustrated by Arthur Byng, R.N.

8. THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF JAMES BECKWOURTH,  Mountaineer, Scout, Pioneer, and Chief of Crow Nation Indians. Edited by Chas. G. Leland.

9. A PARTICULAR ACCOUNT OF THE EUROPEAN MILITARY ADVENTURERS OF HINDUSTAN.  Compiled by Henry Compton.

10. THE MEMOIRS AND TRAVELS OF COUNT DE BENYOWSKY  in Siberia, Kamdchatka, Japan, the Linkiu Islands, and Formosa. Edited by Captain S. P. Oliver, R.A.

11. A MASTER MARINER:  The Life of Captain Robert W. Eastwick. Edited by Herbert Compton.

12. KOLOKOTRONES: KLEPHT AND WARRIOR.  Translated from the Greek by Mrs. Edmonds. Introduction by M. Gennadius.
1, Adelphi Terrace, London, W.C.

Transcriber's Note

Minor printer errors and inconsistencies have been silently corrected.