Excerpt from Across America and Asia: Notes of a Five Years Journey Around the WorldExtensive travel in the interior of Japan and China under com mission from the native governments, and the long journey from China over the table land of Central Asia, and through Siberia to Europe, brought me face to face with the inhabitants of these interesting countries, and with the in¿uences which Nature has used in moulding them to their present forms.I have tried to present in a continued series of sketches these important regions, which are being brought, by the reaction of the spirit of the age upon their natural capacities, into the circle of interdependent nations.The incidents and adventures of an eventful journey are used freely, as forming some of the best illustrations of the social con dition of the races in the midst of which they occurred.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.