Excerpt from Adventures in the Wilderness On page 42 of this work the author commends the Keeseville route to parties entering the wilderness from Lake Champlain. Since its publication, information has reached him of such a nature as to induce the recommendation of the Plattsburg route as well. The latter is comparatively an easy route. From Plattsburg cars run to Point of Rocks (or Ausable Forks), intersecting the Keeseville road, and saving some sixteen miles of unpleasant staging from Port Kent. At Fouquet's Hotel, Plattsburg, every facility for rest and preparation can be had. At Point of Rock parties can arrange to meet their means of conveyance to Martin's, Smith's, Bartlett's, and other houses at St. Regis. Invalids, or persons not in robust health, who may venture upon this trip, will find Plattsburg a pleasant and convenient place for recuperation before cutting loose from all the amenities of civilization. The author would particularly advise all parties, before starting, to engage by letter conveyance from Point of Rocks to their destination. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This 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.

Excerpt from The Desert Home: Or the Adventures of a Lost Family in the Wilderness Of a similar character is the Great American Desert; but its surface is still more varied with what may be termed 'geographical features.' There are plains some of them more than a hundred miles wide where you can see nothing but white sand, often drifting about on the wind, and here and there thrown into long ridges such as those made by a snowstorm. There are other plains, equally large, where no sand appears, but brown barren earth utterly destitute of vegetation. There are others, again, on which grows a stunted Shrub with leaves of a pale silvery colour. In some places it grows so thickly. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This 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.

The Desert Home The Adventures of a Lost Family in the Wilderness by Mayne Reid The Great American Desert. There is a great desert in the interior of North America. It is almost as large as the famous Saära of Africa. It is fifteen hundred miles long, and a thousand wide. Now, if it were of a regular shape-that is to say, a parallelogram-you could at once compute its area, by multiplying the length upon the breadth; and you would obtain one million and a half for the result-one million and a half of square miles. But its outlines are as yet very imperfectly known; and although it is fully fifteen hundred miles long, and in some places a thousand in breadth, its surface-extent is probably not over one million of square miles, or twenty-five times the size of England. Fancy a desert twenty-five times as big as all England! Do you not think that it has received a most appropriate name when it is called the Great American Desert? We are delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive Classic Library collection. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. The aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature, and our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. The contents of the vast majority of titles in the Classic Library have been scanned from the original works. To ensure a high quality product, each title has been meticulously hand curated by our staff. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with a book that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic work, and that for you it becomes an enriching experience.

Excerpt from The War-Path: A Narrative of Adventures in the Wilderness A dense fog hung over the placid surface of the Delaware River, and enveloped in its folds many of the ancient buildings of Burlington, then the capital of the colony of New Jersey. The stately mansion of the British governor, William Franklin, situated on the beautiful green bank so much admired at the present day, was wrapped in the vapour, and, as was often said of its occupant, seemed lost in a mist. Even the haunted tree in front of the governor's residence - the witches' sycamore - was reported by fearful pedestrians to have vanished, or at least to have become invisible. Yet, notwithstanding the gloom which oppressed the atmosphere, a most extraordinary sound of hilarity burst from the hall of one of the dwellings on the principal street running at right angles with the river. The house from which the sound proceeded was the habitation of a solemn Quaker. The hall-door was open, and within, erect as a young man of thirty-five, stood Thomas Schooley, in his sixtieth year, surrounded by several of his friends, of about the same age and stature, all being tall and athletic, and habited alike, as they were all Quakers. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This 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.

Excerpt from The Country Beyond: A Romance of the Wilderness That was what the girl had called it once upon a time, when sobbing out the shame and the agony Of it to herself. That was before Peter had come to leaven the drab Of her life. But the hell was still there. One would not have guessed its existence, standing at the bald top Of Cragg's Ridge this wonderful thirtieth day Of May. In the whiteness Of winter one could look Off over a hundred square miles Of freezing forest and swamp and river country, with the gleam Of ice-covered lakes here and there, fringed by their black spruce and cedar and balsam - a country Of storm, Of deep snows, Of men and women whose blood ran red with the thrill and the hardship and the never-ending adventure Of the wild. But this was spring. And such a spring as had not come to the Canadian north country in many years. Until three days ago there had been a deluge Of warm rains, and since then the sun had inundated the land with the golden warmth Of summer. The last chill was gone from the air, and the last bit Of frozen earth and muck from the deepest and blackest swamps. North, South, east and west the wilderness world was a glory Of bursting life, of springtime mellowing into summer. Ridge upon ridge Of yellows and greens and blacks swept away into the unknown distances like the billows Of a vast sea; and between them lay the valleys and swamps, the lakes and waterways, glad with the rippling song of running waters, the sweet scents Of early flowering time, and the joyous voice of all mating creatures. Just under Cragg's Ridge lay the paradise, a meadow-like sweep Of plain that reached down to the edge Of Clearwater Lake, with clumps Of poplars and white birch and darker tapestries Of spruce and ba1 sams dotting it like islets in a sea Of verdant green. The flowers were two weeks ahead of their time and the sweet perfumes Of late June, instead of May, rose up out Of the plain, and already there was nesting in the velvety splashes of timber. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This 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.

Excerpt from Wilderness: A Journal of Quiet Adventure in Alaska The other two human characters in this adventuring quest after great and simple things are acquisitions to be thankful for, also; the touchingly tender-hearted, knight-like, beautiful, funny little boy; and lovable, dignified old Olson a fiction writer wonders in despair why old Olson so vividly, brilliantly lives in these unstudied pages, solid, breathing, warm, as miraculously different from all other human beings as any creature of esh and blood who draws the mysterious breath of life beside you in the same room. Fox Island lives too; we walk about it, treading solidly, loving every log and rotten stump, gnarled tree, every mound and path, the rocks and brooks, each a being in itself, just as little Rockwell does; and we climb with the two younger ones up the sheer, snow covered ridge till across the great jagged teeth of fenris-the-wolf, we see the glory of the open sea. We look up at Olson, swaying gigantic on the deck above us, as we bump the side in our little boat and we go down into the warm cabin full of the fumes of cooking and good-fellowship, and drink with the old skipper and the old Swede till we too see deep under the white hard surface of where life is hidden. All this firm earth gives authority and penetration to the shining beauty which pervades the book and the drawings, carries us along to share it, not merely to look at it; to feel it, not merely to admire it. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This 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."