Excerpt from Distant Lands: An Elementary Study in Geography The historical thread Of the present volume is cut short near the close of the eighteenth century, ex cept in regard to geographical exploration, which is pursued into the nineteenth century in order that the physical sketch Of the world's surface may include a few ideas concerning the deep ocean and the Polar regions. Existing political geography is reserved for the fourth and last volume Of the series. Adhering as in the two preceding books to the idea that a text book should present a text, and that commentary and question can only come with vivid interest from the living teacher, I have refused to cumber my pages with an apparatus of notes and exercises which, so far as I remember my boyhood, made school books repellent. 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.