The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Western World, by W.H.G. Kingston

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Title: The Western World
Picturesque Sketches of Nature and Natural History in North
and South America

Author: W.H.G. Kingston

Illustrator: D. Yan, W.H. Freeman, Etherington and Others.

Release Date: February 28, 2008 [EBook #24715]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WESTERN WORLD ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

The Western World, by W.H.G. Kingston.

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This rather long book is not a novel: it is a fun-level introduction to
the natural history of the Americas, seen from a late nineteenth century
perspective. Quadrupeds, birds, plants, trees, and the indigenous races
are covered, always in an interesting and readable style. There are
almost 200 engravings, many of them quite excellent, done by a variety
of high-quality artists. Unfortunately all this adds up to additional
size, such that the PDF of the book is close to 100 megabytes, when an
average novel is from 12 to 20 megabytes.

You could not use this book as a full guide to all the natural history
of the Americas, but instead it is intended to be read through in order
to gain an introductory view of it. The book is divided into five parts
of which the first, of nine chapters, covers North America; the second,
of three chapters, covers Central America; the third, fourth, and fifth,
amounting to twenty-five chapters, covers South America.

It is a well-written and absorbing book.

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THE WESTERN WORLD, BY W.H.G. KINGSTON.

PREFACE.

In the following pages I have endeavoured to give, in a series of
picturesque sketches, a general view of the natural history as well as
of the physical appearance of North and South America.

I have first described the features of the country; then its vegetation;
and next the wild men and the brute creatures which inhabit it.
However, I have not been bound by any strict rule in that respect, as my
object has been to produce a work calculated to int