PREFACE. 



'K the following pages I have endeavoured to give, in 

 a series of picturesque sketches, a general view of 

 the natural history as well as of the physical 

 appearance of North and South America. 



I have first described the features of the country ; then its 

 vegetation ; and next the wild men and the brute creatures 

 which inhabit it. However, I have not been bound by any 

 strict rule in that respect, as my object has been to produce a 

 work calculated to interest the family circle rather than one 

 of scientific pretensions. I have endeavoured to impart, in an 

 attractive manner, information about its physical geography, 

 mineral riches, vegetable productions, and the appearance and 

 customs of the human beino-s inhabitini^ it. But the chief 

 portion of the work is devoted to accounts of the brute crea- 

 tion, from the huge stag and buftalo to the minute humming- 

 l)ird and persevering termites, — introduced not in a formal 

 way, but as they appear to the naturalist-explorer, to the 

 traveller in search of adventures, or to the sportsman; with 



