Overland through Asia; Pictures of Siberian, Chinese, and Tartar

Overland through Asia; Pictures of Siberian, Chinese, and Tartar

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Chinese, and Tartar Life, by Thomas Wallace Knox
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Title: Overland through Asia; Pictures of Siberian, Chinese, and Tartar Life
Author: Thomas Wallace Knox
Release Date: October 20, 2004 [eBook #13806]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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Two spellings, "Tunguse" and "Tunguze," are used throughout the book for the same tribe. The caption of Illustrations #55, 58, 103, 144 differ from the captions given in the table and were not changed.

OVERLAND THROUGH ASIA: PICTURES OF SIBERIAN, CHINESE, AND TARTAR LIFE
Travels and Adventures in Kamchatka, Siberia, China, Mongolia, Chinese Tartary, and European Russia, with Full Accounts of the Siberian Exiles, Their Treatment, Condition, and Mode of Life; a Description of the Amoor River, and the Siberian Shores of the Frozen Ocean; with an Appropriate Map, and Nearly 200 Illustrations
by
THOMAS W. KNOX.
Author of Camp Fire And Cotton Field 1871

[Illustration: FRONTISPIECE, THE AUTHOR IN SIBERIAN COSTUME]

PREFACE.
Fourteen years ago Major Perry McD. Collins traversed Northern Asia, and wrote an account, of his journey, entitled "A Voyage Down the Amoor." With the exception of that volume no other work on this little known region has appeared from the pen of an American writer. In view of this fact, the author of "Overland Through Asia" indulges the hope that his book will not be considered a superfluous addition to the literature of his country.
The journey herein recorded was undertaken partly as a pleasure trip, partly as a journalistic enterprise, and partly in the interest of the company that attempted to carry out the plans of Major Collins to make an electric connection between Europe and the United States by way of Asia and Bering's Straits. In the service of the Russo-American Telegraph Company, it may not be improper to state that the author's official duties were so few, and his pleasures so numerous, as to leave the kindest recollections of the many persons connected with the enterprise.
Portions of this book have appeared in Harper's, Putnam's, The Atlantic, The Galaxy, and the Overland Monthlies, and in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper. They have been received with such favor as to encourage their reproduction wherever they could be introduced in the narrative of the journey. The largest part of the book has been written from a carefully recorded journal, and is now in print for the first time. The illustrations have been made from photographs and pencil sketches, and in all cases great care has been exercised to represent correctly the costumes of the country. To Frederick Whymper, Esq., artist of the Telegraph Expedition, and to August Hoffman, (Photographer,) of Irkutsk, Eastern Siberia, the author is specially indebted.
The orthography of geographical names is after the Russian model. The author hopes it will not be difficult to convince his countrymen that the shortest form of spelling is the best, especially when it represents the pronunciation more accurately than does the old method. A frontier justice once remarked, when a lawyer ridiculed his way of writing ordinary words, that a man was not properly educated who could spell a word in only one way. On the same broad principle I will not quarrel with those who insist upon retaining an extra letter in Bering and Ohotsk and two superfluous letters in Kamchatka.
Among those not mentioned in the volume, thanks are due to Frederick Macrellish, Esq., of San Francisco, Hon. F.F. Low of Sacramento, Alfred Whymper, Esq., of London, and the many gentlemen connected with the Telegraph Expedition. There are dozens and hundreds of individuals in Siberia and elsewhere, of all grades and conditions in life, who have placed me under numberless obligations. Wherever I traveled the most uniform courtesy was shown me, and though conscious that few of those dozens and hundreds will ever read these lines, I should consider myself ungrateful did I fail to acknowledge their kindness to a wandering American.
T.W.K.
ASTOR HOUSE, N.Y., Sept. 15, 1870.
[Illustration: LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS By TAY & COX 105 Nassau St. N.Y.]
1. FRONTISPIECE, THE AUTHOR IN SIBERIAN COSTUME 2. CHARACTER DEVELOPED 3. ASPINWALL TO PANAMA 4. SLIGHTLY MONOTONOUS 5. MONTGOMERY STREET IN HOLIDAY DRESS 6. SAN FRANCISCO, 1848 7. CHINESE DINNER 8. OVER SIX FEET 9. STEAMSHIP WRIGHT IN A STORM 10. A SEA SICK BOOBY 11. WRECK OF THE SHIP