Through Siberia / vii (1901) Author: Jonas Jonsson Stadling Translator: Francis Henry Hill Guillemard - Tema: Russia Table of Contents / Innehåll | << Previous | Next >>
	Project Runeberg | Catalog | Recent Changes | Donate | Comments? |

Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Preface by F. H. H. Guillemard

<< prev. page << föreg. sida <<     >> nästa sida >> next page >>

Below is the raw OCR text from the above scanned image. Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan. Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!

This page has been proofread at least once. (diff) (history)
Denna sida har korrekturlästs minst en gång. (skillnad) (historik)

PREFACE.

Notwithstanding the fact that the world is now passing
through a phase of eager geographical exploration and
discovery to which no period—not even the Elizabethan—affords
a parallel, there are still countries whither the
traveller, be he naturalist, geographer, or sportsman, but
rarely directs his steps. Siberia is one of them. The map
of Africa is becoming almost as crowded with place-names
as that of France, and we are steadily filling in the Arctic
and even the Antarctic coast-lines, but the Land of the Tundra
remains almost as unknown to Englishmen as it was in
the days of Cochrane, when, eighty years ago, he set
himself the astounding task of walking, baggageless and alone,
from Dieppe to Kamschatka. The Treaty of Nertchinsk
is a couple of centuries old, and the Russian conquerors
had reached the furthest limits of the vast land even earlier,
but no one now thinks of following in their footsteps.

Travellers, it is true, there are, and in fair number, who
homeward or outward bound between China and Europe
have passed over the Great Siberian Road, or its latter-day
substitute, the Trans-Siberian Railway, but they have
for the most part been mere birds of passage, seeing but

<< prev. page << föreg. sida <<     >> nästa sida >> next page >>