Books Should Be Free Loyal Books Free Public Domain Audiobooks & eBook Downloads |
|
On the Banks of the Amazon By: William Henry Giles Kingston (1814-1880) |
---|
![]()
This is a quite long book, very well written, about a trip down the
Amazon. There is rather a lot of "Natural History", but not too much,
because it has all been made easy to follow, and is very interesting.
All sorts of interesting things happen on this voyage. The copy used for digitisation had a rather furry and small typeface.
Not one of the clearest we have ever seen. Consequently it was rather
heavy labour trying to iron out the misreads and typos, and it may well
be that some remain, though nowhere near the prescribed limit of 99.95%. There are 132,948 words in the book, so 1 in 2000 means that we must
have less than 66 errors still remaining, which I am sure is the case. It is a rather curious thing that one is reminded at times of
Ballantyne's "Martin Rattler," written very much earlier, even down to
to the presence of a "recluse". That doesn't mean you won't enjoy the
book just as much as you might have enjoyed "Martin Rattler." Best, as
always, as an audiobook. ON THE BANKS OF THE AMAZON, BY W.H.G. KINGSTON. CHAPTER ONE. MY SCHOOL BOY DAYS AND FRIENDS. I might find an excuse for being proud, if I were so, not because my
ancestors were of exalted rank or title, or celebrated for noble deeds
or unbounded wealth, or, indeed, on account of any ordinary reasons,
but because I was born in one of the highest cities in the world. I saw
the light in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, then forming the northern
part of the Spanish province of Peru. The first objects I remember
beyond the courtyard of our house in which I used to play, with its
fountain and flower bed in the centre, and surrounding arches of
sun burned bricks, were lofty mountains towering up into the sky. From
one of them, called Pichincha, which looked quite close through the
clear atmosphere of that region, I remember seeing flames of fire and
dark masses of smoke, intermingled with dust and ashes, spouting forth.
Now and then, when the wind blew from it, thick showers of dust fell
down over us, causing great consternation; for many thought that stones
and rocks might follow and overwhelm the city. All day long a lofty
column of smoke rose up towards the sky, and at night a vast mass of
fire was seen ascending from the summit; but no harm was done to the
city, so that we could gaze calmly at the spectacle without
apprehension. Pichincha is, indeed, only one of several mountains in
the neighbourhood from the tops of which bonfires occasionally blaze
forth. Further off, but rising still higher, is the glittering cone of
Cotopaxi, which, like a tyrant, has made its power felt by the
devastation it has often caused in the plains which surround its base:
while near it rise the peaks of Corazon and Ruminagui. Far more dreaded
than their fires is the quaking and heaving and tumbling about of the
earth, shaking down as it does human habitations and mountain tops,
towers and steeples, and uprooting trees, and opening wide chasms,
turning streams from their courses, and overwhelming towns and villages,
and destroying in other ways the works of men's hands, and human beings
themselves, in its wild commotion. These burning mountains, in spite of their fire and smoke, appear but
insignificant pigmies compared to that mighty mountain which rises in
their neighbourhood the majestic Chimborazo. We could see far off its
snow white dome, free of clouds, towering into the deep blue sky, many
thousand feet above the ocean; while on the other side its brother,
Tunguragua, shoots up above the surrounding heights, but, in spite of
its ambitious efforts, has failed to reach the same altitude I might
speak of Antisana, and many other lofty heights with hard names? but I
fancy that a fair idea may be formed of that wonderful region of giant
mountains from the description I have already given... Continue reading book >>
|
Genres for this book |
---|
Adventure |
Fiction |
History |
Teen/Young adult |
eBook links |
---|
Wikipedia – William Henry Giles Kingston |
Wikipedia – On the Banks of the Amazon |
eBook Downloads | |
---|---|
ePUB eBook • iBooks for iPhone and iPad • Nook • Sony Reader |
Kindle eBook • Mobi file format for Kindle |
Read eBook • Load eBook in browser |
Text File eBook • Computers • Windows • Mac |
Review this book |
---|