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.