IV 
PREFACE. 
Professor Thomson the task of dealing with these 
subjects, and the application of the information 
obtained to the furtherance of physical knowledge. 
The description of places visited is given in the 
way that I have viewed them, and under the im- 
pressions that filled my mind at the time ; but as the 
geographical aspects of foreign scenes must be similar 
by whomsoever observed, it is scarcely possible to 
avoid occasionally using descriptions almost identical 
with those published on the subject by previous 
visitors. 
The chief interest connected with this narrative 
will be the vast extent traversed in the pursuit of 
knowledge, which admits of the combination in this 
volume of the general outline of the manners and 
customs of nations and tribes rarely visited, and 
descriptions of scenery under every condition of 
temperature, from the fiery Tropics to the ice-bound 
Antarctic regions: thus combining in the work a 
fund of information that has been brought together 
through special aid of the Grover n merit, granted to 
the Committee of the Royal Society, and now dedi- 
cated to the public use. 
I now respectfully present the narrative of the 
