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In 1879 John Muir went to Alaska for the first time. Its stupendous living glaciers aroused his unbounded interest, for they enabled him to verify his theories of glacial action. Again and again he returned to this continental laboratory of landscapes. The greatest of the tide-water glaciers appropriately commemorates his name. Upon this book of Alaska travels, all but finished before his unforeseen departure, John Muir expended the last months of his life. (Summary by William Frederic Bade)

Travels in Alaska

This book is a collection of sketches first published in the Atlantic Monthly magazine and gathered into book form in 1901. The focus here is on 4 parks in the west. Six of the 10 articles focus on Yosemite National Park; also described are Yellowstone, Sequoia, and General Grant (renamed Kings Canyon in 1940) National Parks. - Summary by TriciaG

Our National Parks

John Muir's adventure guide for the Yosemite Valley.

Yosemite

The year is 1838. The scene is the dense Honduran forest along the Copán River. Two men, John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood, are about to rediscover Mayan civilization. Their guide, slashing through the rampant growth with his machete, leads them to a structure with steps up the side, shaped like a pyramid. Next they see a stone column, fourteen feet high, sculptured on the front with a portrait of a man, “solemn, stern and well fitted to excite terror,” covered on the sides with hieroglyphics, and with workmanship “equal to the finest monuments of the Egyptians.” Stephens records these discoveries and also his travels in Central America, where he had been sent by President Van Buren as special ambassador to the ill-fated Republic of Central America. The republic being engulfed in civil war when Stephens arrives in Guatemala, he finds himself dodging revolutionary armies while he hunts for a “legitimate government” to which to present his credentials. Catherwood, meanwhile, directs his immense artistic talent to illustrating views of Mayan architecture. Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan was a best seller in its day and has been called an “Indiana Jones” saga by modern reviewers. (Summary by Sue Anderson)

Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan, Vol. 1

The year is 1838. The scene is the dense Honduran forest along the Copán River. Two men, John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood, are about to rediscover Mayan civilization. Their guide, slashing through the rampant growth with his machete, leads them to a stone column, fourteen feet high, sculptured on the front with a portrait of a man, “solemn, stern and well fitted to excite terror,” covered on the sides with hieroglyphics, and with workmanship “equal to the finest monuments of the Egyptians.” Stephens records their discoveries and also his travels in Central America, while Catherwood directs his immense artistic talent to illustrating views of Mayan architecture. Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatán was a best seller in its day and has been called an “Indiana Jones” saga by modern reviewers. (Summary by Sue Anderson)

Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatán, Vol. 2

John Leland's 'Itinerary' was the product of several journeys around England and Wales undertaken between 1538 and 1543. The manuscript is made up of Leland's notebooks, which were first published in the 18th century, and later in a ten-part, five-volume edition published by Lucy Toulmin (1906-10). Part IX of the manuscript begins in the south of England and gradually meanders its way, county by county, through central and northern England up to the borders of Scotland. Leland did not prepare the manuscript for publication and it is sometimes difficult to follow, with occasional geographically-misplaced sections, lists of headings with content yet to be added, and the odd lapse into Latin. Part IX of the Itinerary will be of interest, nevertheless, to anyone with an interest in English history as an early form of the 'gazetteer', compiled at a time when the shape of the country as a whole was still a mystery to most of its inhabitants. Leland's spellings tend to be inconsistent and for the most part I have used modern pronunciations unless a consistent spelling clearly indicates a different pronunciation. I have also omitted or modified a few short passages that would be otherwise incomprehensible. (Summary by Phil Benson)

Itinerary of John Leland in or About the Years 1535-1543

Written by John Hay, a naturalist and co-founder of the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, The Great Beach is an exploration into the nature and beauty of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. His passion for Cape Cod is evident as he writes of the wildlife, sea life, and vegetation of this narrow peninsula. Hay includes much of the history of this area as a backdrop, along with his concerns for the future of this land due to the uptick of tourism. - Summary by Phyllis Vincelli

Great Beach

Cambridge County Geographies was a 75 volume series covering the counties of England, Scotland and Wales. Separate volumes were produced for Lancashire north and south of the River Ribble. J. E. Marr's volume on North Lancashire covers a geographically diverse region, including Furness and the Lake District west of Lake Windermere that now spans Lancashire and Cumbria. As much a history, guidebook and gazetteer as it is a geography, Marr's volume paints a rich and in places idyllic picture of the northern parts of the county in the years before the first world war. - Summary by Phil Benson

North Lancashire

This book is part history and part travelogue, an account of a brief visit by a wealthy, white U.S. politician during a lamentable time in Haiti’s history of its invasion and occupation by the U.S. military. Dryden offers his views of elements of Haitian culture such as education, religion and commerce, with some optimism but with the shallow understanding of a casual observer who has not been immersed in the culture enough to provide truly insightful understanding. One chapter is an account of his duck hunting expedition. This is, nonetheless, valuable in helping us understand how many understood the Haitian situation in the early twentieth century. Summary by Larry Wilson.

Haiti: Its Dawn of Progress after Years in a Night of Revolution

A collection of some of the most significant literary work on the English Lake District prior to Thomas West’s A guide to the Lakes (1778). The poet Thomas Gray takes the reader from Brough south to Kendal on his return from a tour in Scotland. An agricultural reformer, Arthur Young, also returning from Scotland, begins his journey in the northern parts of Cumberland with dry descriptions of local farming, but on arriving in Keswick, his account turns to the picturesque scenery around Derwent Water, Ullswater and Windermere. ‘Wild and romantic’ is Young’s phrase, yet the agriculturalist in him comes to the fore as he declares the enclosed landscapes around Kendal and Windermere to be the most picturesque of all. Thomas Pennant’s account of his journey through the district is cursory, and he seems not have noticed the lakes or mountains at all. West’s Guide quotes Gray, Young and Pennant, and its second edition included the full text of Gray’s unpublished letters as an addendum. It also included four short pieces. John Brown’s letter to his former pupil William Gilpin (who would become the foremost exponent of the ‘picturesque’) connects the scenery of the Lakes to European landscape painting. Experimental philosopher Adam Walker provides a note on a local curiosity, the underground passages of Dunald Mill Hole. John Dalton and Richard Cumberland were among the first in a long line of Lakeland poets to be inspired to verse.&gt; - Summary by Phil Benson

A collection of some of the most significant literary work on the English Lake District prior to Thomas West’s A guide to the Lakes (1778). The poet Thomas Gray takes the reader from Brough south to Kendal on his return from a tour in Scotland. An agricultural reformer, Arthur Young, also returning from Scotland, begins his journey in the northern parts of Cumberland with dry descriptions of local farming, but on arriving in Keswick, his account turns to the picturesque scenery around Derwent Water, Ullswater and Windermere. ‘Wild and romantic’ is Young’s phrase, yet the agriculturalist in him comes to the fore as he declares the enclosed landscapes around Kendal and Windermere to be the most picturesque of all. Thomas Pennant’s account of his journey through the district is cursory, and he seems not have noticed the lakes or mountains at all. West’s Guide quotes Gray, Young and Pennant, and its second edition included the full text of Gray’s unpublished letters as an addendum. It also included four short pieces. John Brown’s letter to his former pupil William Gilpin (who would become the foremost exponent of the ‘picturesque’) connects the scenery of the Lakes to European landscape painting. Experimental philosopher Adam Walker provides a note on a local curiosity, the underground passages of Dunald Mill Hole. John Dalton and Richard Cumberland were among the first in a long line of Lakeland poets to be inspired to verse.> - Summary by Phil Benson

Wild and romantic: Early guides to the English lake district

Birdseye Views of Far Lands is an interesting, wholesome presentation of something that a keen-eyed, alert traveler with the faculty of making contrasts with all classes of people in all sorts of places, in such a sympathetic way as to win their esteem and confidence, has been able to pick up as he has roamed over the face of the earth for a quarter of a century.The book is not a geography, a history, a treatise on sociology or political economy. It is a Human Interest book which appeals to the reader who would like to go as the writer has gone and to see as the writer has seen the conformations of surface, the phenomena of nature and the human group that make up what we call a "world."The reader finds facts indicating travel and study set forth in such vigorous, vivid style that the attention is held by a story while most valuable information is being obtained. The casual reader, the pupil in the public school and student in the high school, professional men and women, will all find the book at once highly interesting and instructive. In no other book with which I am acquainted can so much that is interesting be learned of the world in so short time and in such a pleasing way.Teachers in rural schools will find the book especially helpful. It will inspire the pupils in the upper grades in these schools to do some observation work themselves and to in this manner seek to learn their own localities better, while at the same time it will suggest the collection of materials about other countries, their peoples, products, characteristics and importance from sources other than text books.Every rural school as well as every high school and public library in the land should have one or more copies of this book. (Summary from book's Introduction.)

Birdseye Views of Far Lands

A travelogue of a trip through New Zealand in 1885 with panegyric descriptions of the scenery, elucidations of the progress the country had made since the writer had been there twenty years earlier, encomiums on the differences between New South Wales and New Zealand, and the writer's thoughts on where the two colonies needed to progress in the areas of agriculture, mining, forestry and education. Chapter 20 outlines a brief visit to Hobart on the way home, while the Appendix covers some statistics on the forestry industry in New Zealand (from a report by Professor Thomas Kirk) and concludes with descriptions of the eruption of Tarawera in June 1886 as reported by the Sydney newspapers. (Summary by Beeswaxcandle)

Our New Zealand Cousins

In this little book I have endeavoured to interweave with descriptions of the most picturesque parts of the Canterbury Port Hills some of the Maori poetic legends and historical traditions which belong to the Range, and which have not previously been recorded. - Summary by Preface

Maori Folk-Tales of the Port Hills

Following his discovery and circumnavigation of New Zealand recorded in Volume 1, Cook sailed westwards to Australia, whose east coast was at that time unknown. After initially sighting Port Hicks, Cook landed at Botany Bay, where he tried but failed to make contact with the native inhabitants. He proceeded northward, mapping about a thousand miles of coastline and discovering the Great Barrier Reef by severely damaging his ship in running into one of the reefs. The ship was in danger of sinking and limped to the mainland where, over a period of seven weeks, major repairs were made by the ship's crew. Cook then proceeded to Cape York, the northern tip of Australia and completed his circumnavigation of the globe via Batavia (modern Jakarta, Indonesia), the Cape of Good Hope and St. Helena. - Summary by David Cole

First Voyage of James Cook Volume 2

A podcast encouraging those who are standing firm for their marital vows in the presence of God.

Marriage Stander

In May 1768, the Admiralty commissioned the 39-year old Cook to command a scientific voyage to the Pacific Ocean to observe and record the 1769 transit of Venus across the Sun. The expedition sailed aboard HMS Endeavour in August 1768, rounded Cape Horn and continued to Tahiti, where the observations of the transit were made. Cook then opened sealed orders for the second part of his voyage: to search the south Pacific for signs of the postulated rich southern continent of Terra Australis. Cook proceeded to circumnavigate New Zealand's two main islands, which is where this volume ends. - Summary by David Cole

First Voyage of James Cook Volume 1

An anecdotal account of the journey undertaken by James Boswell and Samuel Johnson to the Scottish Highlands and the Hebrides Islands - Summary by Anthony Ogus

Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson

An attempt to sail a small boat from the River Thames to the Solent in the English Channel, using a canal and river route. (Summary by Garth Burton)

Thames to the Solent by Canal and Sea

Isabella Bird travels abroad in Canada and the United States in the 1850s. As an Englishwoman and a lone female, she travels as far as Chicago, Prince Edward Island, and Cincinatti. Her observations on the trials and tribulations of the journeys are astute, if formed by her place and time in history. Adventures with pickpockets, omnibuses, cholera, and rat invested hotels deter her not. (Sibella Denton)

Englishwoman in America

Heavenly Mother has come like the spring rains water the earth-World Mission Society Church of God. If you’re just hearing this start at the oldest episode and go in order from there. Speaker-Sara Bria

World Mission Society Church Of God

Six months among the palm groves, coral reefs, and volcanoes of the Sandwich Islands. - Summary by Isabella Bird

Hawaiian Archipelago

In this book, Isabella L. Bird, who had been elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society only 2 years prior, describes her travels through Korea from 1894 - 1897 in her well-known style. She went on lengthy trips through the interior of what is today both North- and South Korea and vividly describes the landscapes, people and customs of the "Hermit Kingdom". Isabella's sojourn coincided with a time of great turmoil in Korea. Shortly after her arrival, the Japanese occupied the country, ostensibly to protect their expatriate community. But when relations worsend further, Isabella was forced to flee, first to Manchuria, and, after the outbreak of the first Sino-Japanese War (1894 - 1895), to Russia. She returned to Korea only days after the assassination of Queen Min in October 1895, and saw King Gojong reduced to a mere "salaried automaton" until he fled to the Russian Legation in 1896. Isabella, having had several audiences with the monarchs throughout her stay in Seoul, gives a first hand account of the political and governmental changes throughout this time. Altogether, this is a fascinating account of Korea at a time when the country was not only torn between tradition and modernisation, but also found herself a pawn of Japan, China, and Russia, all vying for control in the Far East. (Summary by Availle)

Korea and Her Neighbors

Isabella Lucy Bird was a 19th century English traveller, writer, and natural historian. She was a sickly child, however, while she was travelling she was almost always healthy. Her first trip, in 1854, took her to America, visiting relatives. Her first book, The Englishwoman in America was published anonymously two years later. Unbeaten Tracks in Japan is compiled of the letters she sent to her sister during her 7 months sojourn in Japan in 1878. Her travels there took her from Edo (now called Tokyo) through the interior - where she was often the first foreigner the locals had met - to Niigata, and from there to Aomori. There she crossed over to Yezo (Hokkaido), and her account on the life of the Ainu, an indigenous people of Japan, provides an interesting glimpse of days long past. (Summary by Availle)

Unbeaten Tracks in Japan

Irwin Cobb's humorous Europe Revised is a travelogue and comedy almost in the style of Mark Twain. The dedication says it best, "To My Small Daughter Who bade me shed a tear at the tomb of Napoleon, which I was very glad to do, because when I got there my feet certainly were hurting me."

Europe Revised

Ida Pfeiffer travelled alone in an era when women didn't travel. She went first on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, then went on to Egypt and Italy. Understanding the difficulties a woman would face travelling alone and on a budget, she made a will before she left. Go she did, however; and upon her return she wrote this book. She used the proceeds to finance her next trip - six months in Iceland. (Summary by Sibella Denton)

Visit to the Holy Land, Egypt, and Italy

This is a memoir by an early 19th Century American settler in the Pacific Northwest. (Description by BellonaTimes)

Ox-Team Days on the Oregon Trail

In the Introduction to Camping and Woodcraft, Horace Kephart wrote: “My one aim in writing this little book is to make it of practical service to those who seek rest or sport in the wilderness, or whose business calls them thither.” The author further described the content of this book: “In the following chapters I offer some suggestions on outfitting, making camps, dressing and keeping game and fish, camp cookery, forest travel, how to avoid getting lost, and what to do if one does get lost, living off the country, what the different species of trees are good for (from a camper's viewpoint), backwoods handicrafts in wood, bark, skins and other raw materials, the treatment of wounds and other injuries, and some other branches of woodcraft that may be of service when one is far from shops and from hired help.” Camping and Woodcraft was his first book and is actually a collection of articles that had been published in Field and Stream magazine.Horace Kephart, born in 1862, was raised in Pennsylvania and Iowa then trained as a librarian at Cornell University. He worked in St Louis near the Ozark mountains for a portion of his life (1890 – 1904) then moved to western North Carolina where he lived near Hazel Creek in the Great Smoky Mountains then near Bryson City. Kephart was a campaigner for the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, which was created in 1926. He was the author of a number of books and articles on the outdoors. (Summary by Gail Timmerman-Vaughan, based on Wikipedia - Horace Kephart)

Book of Camping and Woodcraft: A Guidebook for Those Who Travel in the Wilderness

Selections from the "Observations and reflections made in the course of a journey through France, Italy, and Germany" by Hester Lynch Piozzi who, during her first marriage to Henry Thrale, was the hostess and friend of many of her famous contemporaries including Dr Johnson and Fanny Burney. The vivid and personal "Observations and Reflections" was first published in 1789. - Summary by barbara2

Glimpses of Italian society in the eighteenth century

HERODOTUS was born at Halicarnassus, on the southwest coast of Asia Minor, in the early part of the fifth century, B. C. Of his life we know almost nothing, except that he spent much of it traveling, to collect the material for his writings, and that he finally settled down at Thurii, in southern Italy, where his great work was composed. He died in 424 B. C. The subject of the history of Herodotus is the struggle between the Greeks and the barbarians, which he brings down to the battle of Mycale in 479 B. C. The work, as we have it, is divided into nine books, named after the nine Muses, but this division is probably due to the Alexandrine grammarians. His information he gathered mainly from oral sources, as he traveled through Asia Minor, down into Egypt, round the Black Sea, and into various parts of Greece and the neighboring countries. The chronological narrative halts from time to time to give opportunity for descriptions of the country, the people, and their customs and previous history; and the political account is constantly varied by rare tales and wonders. Among these descriptions of countries the most fascinating to the modern, as it was to the ancient, reader is his account of the marvels of the land of Egypt. From the priests at Memphis, Heliopolis, and the Egyptian Thebes he learned what he reports of the size of the country, the wonders of the Nile, the ceremonies of their religion, the sacredness of their animals. He tells also of the strange ways of the crocodile and of that marvelous bird, the Phoenix; of dress and funerals and embalming; of the eating of lotos and papyrus; of the pyramids and the great labyrinth; of their kings and queens and courtesans. - Summary by the author

Account of Egypt by Herodotus

Henry Vizetelly, writing under the pseudonym J. Tyrwhitt Brooks, recalls an expedition to California he took between 1847-1848 . Originally, he planned to enlist as a surgeon for the US Army during the Mexican war, but conflicts had ended by the time he applied. In a quick change of plans, he joined a group of prospectors on their way to the newly found gold fields of California. While he might not find service in the military, his training as a physician made him a valuable addition to the ragtag team of explorers.His training as a physician gives us an exacting perspective of the events and people who struck out from more sedate routines to prospect gold in the Californian wilderness. However, he is unprepared to find a cure for the gold fever that has depopulated the surrounding towns. Only one member of the group, an experienced fur-trapper, is able to resist the lustrous lure of nuggets, flakes and gold richly deposited in the dusty desert.Like the others who have left jobs to prospect for gold, he learns how to live on the land and struggle through hardship away from the security of city life. His motley group of changing characters ride through sudden fortunes and disasters while meeting Mormons, Indians and not least of all a bountiful harvest of gold. Before he returns to his home in England, another quick change of fortune undoes his plans for a comfortable retirement and shows us the extent of greed that has sprung up in the mining camps.

California

A well-written and informative first-hand account of a young man's travels within Brazil during the period shortly before Brazil's independence from Portugal. Koster's travels take place principally in the coastal region of the Northeast, but he does visit the northern port city of Maranhão. Koster is an Englishman who reports on the life and cultural practices of the Brazilians with a refreshing objective perspective. His work is really more ethnography than travelogue. (Summary by KevinS)

Travels in Brazil, Volume 2

Travels in Brazil, Volume 1

A travel journal to the Scilly Islands written in the Nineteenth Century. It records Scillonian legends and folklore. There are brief diversions into period racism. -Summary by Timothy Ferguson

Scilly and its Legends

A splendid example of travel writing at its best, in this description of six week tour in France -- from Touraine, down to Provence, then back up north -- made by Henry James in 1882, and first published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1883-1884. - Summary by Nicholas Clifford

Little Tour in France

A loving recollection of the writer’s experiences, over many decades, of Italian places, people and art. - Summary by barbara2

Italian Hours

Sailing voyage from England to Portugal in the mid Eighteenth Century, by one of the premier humorists, satirists, novelists and playwrights of his age. It was to be his last work, as his failing health proved unable to persevere much longer after the voyage. ( Summary by JCarson )

Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon

Samuel Butler's biographer dedicates his urbane account of the culture and entertainments of rural Sicily to the unborn son of his guide to them. (Summary by R. S. Steinberg)

Diversions in Sicily

Cape Cod is one of several excursion books by Henry David Thoreau. The travel itinerary frames his thoughts about geography, natural and local history, and philosophy. (Summary from Wikipedia)

Cape Cod

Monthly call with the different levels of the YouTube Memberships. If you want to become a member and share about your company, workflow, tools, product, or just hangout, visit the YouTube memberships page here:<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrSIvbFncPSlK6AdwE2QboA/join">https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrSIvbFncPSlK6AdwE2QboA/join</a>All of these episodes are transmitted live on YouTube, so if you're listening to it and don't understand what's going on, go and watch the video on YouTube, here's the playlist:<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZWMav2s1MZR_E0s7OTicc7Th5QuWvUPx">https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZWMav2s1MZR_E0s7OTicc7Th5QuWvUPx</a>There's different options, in case you want to join the calls once up to 4 times a month.We talk about whatever the guests want to talk about, but usually stuff related to technology and IT

Monthly call with the different levels of the YouTube Memberships. If you want to become a member and share about your company, workflow, tools, product, or just hangout, visit the YouTube memberships page here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrSIvbFncPSlK6AdwE2QboA/join All of these episodes are transmitted live on YouTube, so if you're listening to it and don't understand what's going on, go and watch the video on YouTube, here's the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZWMav2s1MZR_E0s7OTicc7Th5QuWvUPx There's different options, in case you want to join the calls once up to 4 times a month. We talk about whatever the guests want to talk about, but usually stuff related to technology and IT

Monthly call with the different levels of the YouTube Memberships. If you want to become a member and share about your company, workflow, tools, product, or just hangout, visit the YouTube memberships page here:<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrSIvbFncPSlK6AdwE2QboA/join" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrSIvbFncPSlK6AdwE2QboA/join</a>All of these episodes are transmitted live on YouTube, so if you're listening to it and don't understand what's going on, go and watch the video on YouTube, here's the playlist:<a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZWMav2s1MZR_E0s7OTicc7Th5QuWvUPx" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZWMav2s1MZR_E0s7OTicc7Th5QuWvUPx</a>There's different options, in case you want to join the calls once up to 4 times a month.We talk about whatever the guests want to talk about, but usually stuff related to technology and IT

Linkarzu Root Access

This is a story of magnificent failures. The men who equipped the expeditions of which I shall tell you the story died in the poorhouse. The men who took part in these voyages sacrificed their lives as cheerfully as they lighted a new pipe or opened a fresh bottle. Some of them were drowned, and some of them died of thirst. A few were frozen to death, and many were killed by the heat of the scorching sun. But what of it? It was all in the day's work. These excellent fellows took whatever came, be it good or bad, or indifferent, with perfect grace, and kept on smiling. They kept their powder dry, did whatever their hands found to do, and left the rest to the care of that mysterious Providence who probably knew more about the ultimate good of things than they did. - Summary from the preface

Golden Book of the Dutch Navigators

Hazard Stevens and P.B. Van Trump, aided by the Indian guide Sluiskin, made the first documented successful ascent of Mt. Rainier on August 17, 1870. Hazard's account of the climb was first published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1876 and later reprinted with an introduction by Edmond S. Meany in 1916. Sluiskin tried to dissuade the climbers. "Takhoma” (the Indian name for Mt. Rainier) "was an enchanted mountain, inhabited by an evil spirit, who dwelt in a fiery lake on its summit. No human being could ascend it or even attempt its ascent and survive." This prophecy almost proved true. Thinking they could reach the summit and return on the same day, Stevens and Van Trump left behind coats and blankets, only to find themselves trapped overnight in bitter cold. They survived huddled around a volcanic steam vent in an ice cave. "The heat at the orifice was too great to bear for more than an instant, but the steam wet us, the smell of sulfur was nauseating, and the cold was so severe that our clothes, saturated with the steam, froze stiff when turned away from the heated jet." (Summary by Sue Anderson)

First Successful Ascent of Mt. Rainier, 1870

The Broads area of Norfolk and Suffolk is in the East Anglian region of England. It is the location of Britain's third largest inland waterway system - a system that evolved gradually by natural flooding as a consequence of extensive peat digging during mediaeval times in this vast low-lying area. The Broads (or lakes) and rivers were used for centuries to transport goods and passengers between various inland locations and the coastal ports of Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft. During the nineteenth century, the area started to become popular as a boating holiday destination. This book, first published in 1887, records the events of the author’s holiday on the Broads aboard his own eight ton cutter – The Buttercup. The author, along with a friend (named variously, Jack or John) and his ’man’, George sail the yacht to various places of interest around the Broads. With the help of an experienced sea captain, the group leave the Broads for a day and sail the Buttercup down the Suffolk coast past Southwold and through Sole Bay to see the remains of the ancient capitol of East Anglia at Dunwich. So, if the thought of being out on the water, sailing and discovering all sorts of interesting places is something that ‘rocks your boat’ then please join me if you will, on another auditory cruise around these unique waterways through expansive landscapes under wide open skies. - Summary by TND

Notes on The Broads and Rivers of Norfolk and Suffolk

Sometime in the latter half of 1911, Harry A. Franck jumped out of a box-car and crossed the Rio Grande, from Laredo. Thus began a journey, often afoot, that Harry estimated would take him 8 months. It ended up occupying four years of his life. The first leg of his Latin American epic is recorded in "Tramping Through Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras; Being the Random Notes of an Incurable Vagabond" (The Century Company, 1916). He then headed south to the Canal Zone, Teddy Roosevelt's grand experiment in socialism, and applied within the Zone police force for a position as a census taker (chronicled in "Zone Policeman 88; A Close Range Study of the Panama Canal and Its Workers", The Century Company, April 1913). Since he was one of the few Americans who actually spoke Spanish, and a bevy of other languages, he was hired immediately. By June, 1912, he'd bankrolled enough money to see him through the opening phase of the work I'll be reading for you, "Vagabonding Down the Andes; Being the Narrative of a Journey, Chiefly Afoot, From Panama to Buenos Aires" (The Century Company, 1917). Leaving the Zone in June of 1912, with "objections to his reemployment", he caught a steamer and entered the South American continent at Cartagena, Colombia. Approximate 30 months later, having walked most of the length of the Inca highway, he staggered from a trek that took him over mountains and through raw jungle onto a ferry, and thence sailed into Buenos Aires, regarded as one of the most glamorous and expensive cities on earth at the time. This leg of the four volume epic (which later concludes with "Working North from Patagonia; Being the Narrative of a Journey, Earned on the Way, Through Southern and Eastern South America, The Century Company, 1921) was the longest one, and in many respects, "Vagabonding Down the Andes" was also the most detailed. As you can see, the works were not published in chronological order. Why? I don't know, other than the last volume, which was delayed by Harry's enlistment and serving in WWI. Harry is an opinionated iconoclast with a strong American value system based upon self-reliance. He's both college-educated and what I suppose can best be called "street smart", though most of his trip took him through places where "street" was little more than an abstract concept. Before his South American journey, he'd already worked his way around the world, and had written a book about it ("A Vagabond Journey Around the World", The Century Company, 1910). Some people are going to get their Politically Correct dander up if they listen. Well, fast traveler, keep in mind that Harry was a man of his times, and thus he sees the world, as we are all people of our times, and thus we see and experience the world. Harry did his vagabonding with a pistol as his constant companion, and lived amongst the poorest classes of people. He drank water collected in the ruts of wagon wheels. Not knowing where his next meal was coming from was the norm, as opposed to the exception. In terms of travel writing he makes Paul Theroux look like an armchair dilettante. Take him as he is, and I think you'll soon become enmeshed in this extraordinary saga. Written by Elliott Swanson, reader.

Vagabonding Down The Andes

"In preparation of this book the author has had in mind the needs of the upper grammar grades. The subject matter has not been selected with the object of covering the field of Western geography in a systematic manner, but instead the attempt has been made to picture as graphically as may be some of its more striking and interesting physical features, and the influence which these features have exerted upon its discovery and settlement." (from the Preface of The Western United States)

Western United States

A series of travel essays by one of the most well known antiquarian authors focused on America and its persistent social, economic and developmental problems. (Summary by Christine Rottger) The language and ideas in this book reflect the period in which it was written. Librivox does not censor works recorded. Some readers and listeners may be offended.

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