OVERLAND THROUGH ASIA: PICTURES OF SIBERIAN, CHINESE, AND TARTAR LIFEBy THOMAS W. KNOX. PREFACE. Fourteen years ago Major Perry McD. Collins traversed Northern Asia, and wrote an account, of his journey, entitled A Voyage Down the Amoor. With the exception of that volume no other work on this little known region has appeared from the pen of an American writer. In view of this fact, the author of Overland Through Asia indulges the hope that his book will not be considered a superfluous addition to the literature of his country...

This is a collection of 22 stories of action and adventure. We follow the narrators as they escape pirates and cannibals, overcome natural disasters, and are attacked by wild animals. Cunning plans are executed and daring escapes are accomplished, all in the particular style of the 19th century adventure story. Thomas Knox was an author who had travelled around the world by the time he wrote the stories in this volume, and who was no stranger to any of the geographic areas in which he set his stories. - Summary by Carolin

John and David grew up best of friends, outgoing and full of adventure. Living but miles from the sea west of Boston, right on the cusp of manhood at the end of America’s Revolutionary war, the ocean’s siren song beckoned to both. At the peak of adolescence, they struck out on foot in pursuit of their shared dream. Two days to Boston and only one day there found them aboard ship for a whirlwind of adventure beyond their wildest dreams. The next fifteen years shaped a future for the fledgling mariners that seems spun as a flaxen yarn --- were it not so historically accurate. - Summary by Tom Hirsch