4 THE SEA. 



the Sun/' " the reference here is to Jerusalem only, yet in the Prologue he states that he 

 was born in the ' Town of Seynt Albanes/ and ( passed the See in the Yeer of Lord 

 Jesu Christ MCCCXII, in the Day of Seynt Michelle, and hidne to have ben longe tyme 

 over the See, and have reign and gon thorgh manye diverse Landes and many Provynces 

 and Kingdomes and lies, and have passed throghe Tartarye, Percye, Ermonye, the litylle 

 and the gret; throghe Lybye, Caldee, and a gret partie of Ethiope, throghe Amazoyne, 

 Inde the lasse and the more, a, gret partie ; and thorghe out many others lies, that ben 



THE STEEUASE OF AN ATLA? TIC STEAMSHIP FOUTY YEAUS AGO. 



abouten Inde ; where dwellen many dyverse Folkes, and of dyverse Maneres and Lawes, 

 and of dyverse Schappes of Men/ " He adds further on in his " Boke " that going all 

 round the world was not unknown even before his time. 



" The world is wide/' yet the practical lines for a journey of this sort are very limited. 

 There is the Siberian overland route, leading by St. Petersburg, Moscow, from which it goes 

 about straight east through Siberia to Lake Baikal; and then there is about a month's 

 journey south, over the Mongolian Desert to Peking; or it may be varied by descending 

 the great Amoor River, on which the Russians have a number of steamers, to Nicolaiefsk ; 

 thence sailing to San Francisco, and home by America and the Atlantic. " When/' says 

 Mr. Simpson, " the Shah and Baron Reuter have made railways through Persia it may 



