Travel Books

EARLY SERVICE Canada has had many brave sons, but none braver than Pierre Gaultier de La Vérendrye, who gave all that he had, including his life, for the glory and welfare of his country. La Vérendrye was born in the quaint little town of Three Rivers, on the St Lawrence, on November 17, 1685. His father was governor of the district of which Three Rivers was the capital; his mother was a daughter of... more...

CHAPTER I A “Sleeping Beauty” land—The coming of the English—Early explorations—The resourceful Australian. The fairy-story of the Sleeping Beauty might have been thought out by someone having Australia in his mind. She was the Sleeping Beauty among the lands of the earth—a great continent, delicately beautiful in her natural features, wonderfully rich in wealth of soil and of mine, left... more...

CHAPTER I THE SANDS OPPOSITE ENGLAND If you leave the mouth of the Thames, or the white chalk cliffs at Dover, and sail over the water just where the English Channel meets the North Sea, you will in about three or four hours see before you a long expanse of yellow sand, and rising behind it a low ridge of sandhills, which look in the distance like a range of baby mountains. These sandhills are called... more...

CHAPTER 1 ITS ANTIQUITY Every boy or girl who has read the history of Joseph must often have wondered what kind of a country Egypt might be, and tried to picture to themselves the scenes so vividly suggested in the Bible story. It must have been a startling experience for the little shepherd boy, who, stolen from his home among the quiet hills of Canaan, so suddenly found himself an inmate of a palace,... more...

CHAPTER I THE LAND OF THE RISING SUN Far away from our land, on the other side of the world, lies a group of islands which form the kingdom of Japan. The word "Japan" means the "Land of the Rising Sun," and it is certainly a good name for a country of the Far East, the land of sunrise. The flag of Japan, too, is painted with a rising sun which sheds its beams on every hand, and this... more...

TABLE OF MAPSPAGEAbyssiniaAdenAfghanistanAfricaAlabamaAlaskaAlbertaAlgeriaAnamAndorraAntarctic ExplorationAntillesArabiaArctic ExplorationArgentinaArizonaArkansasArmeniaAscension IslandAshantiAsiaAsia MinorAtlantic OceanAustraliaAustriaAustria-HungaryAzores IslandsBahama IslandsBaker IslandBaluchistanBarbadosBarbary StatesBarkaBasutolandBavariaBechuanalandBelgiumBermuda... more...

CHAPTER I. —London to Baku—Oil-wells and works—Persians abroad—Caspian steamers—Caspian salmon—Enzelli lagoon—The Jews in Persia—Resht trade—'My eye'—Russian road—The tobacco 'strike,' 1891—Collapse of Tobacco Régie—Moulla opposition. The Persians, as a people still nomadic in their habits, and much given to long pilgrimages, have good knowledge of the... more...

AL-MADINAH contains but few families descended from the Prophet’s Auxiliaries. I heard only of four whose genealogy is undoubted. These were,— 1. The Bayt al-Ansari, or descendants of Abu Ayyub, a most noble race whose tree ramifies through a space of fifteen hundred years. They keep the keys of the Kuba Mosque, and are Imams in the Harim, but the family is no longer wealthy or powerful. 2. The... more...

Foreword. Among the numerous holiday resorts which claim the attention of the travelling public, the Isle of Wight will be found to possess attractions of very varied character. It has often been the theme of poets and the delight of artists. The student of art and the amateur photographer can find subjects in variety, whatever may be his peculiar line of study. The noble cliffs and bays for the... more...

CHAPTER 1. FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF QUEBEC. Quebec, founded by Samuel de Champlain, in 1608, has certainly much to recommend her, by her monuments, her historical memories and her scenery, to the traveller—the scholar—the historian. The wintering of the venturesome Jacques Cartier on the banks of the St. Charles in 1535-6, by its remoteness, is an incident of interest, not only to Canadians, but also... more...