PUBLISHING, BY SUBSCRIPTION,
AN
ENCYCLOPæDIA OF GEOGRAPHY:
COMPRISING A
COMPLETE DESCRIPTION OF THE EARTH,
PHYSICAL, STATISTICAL, COMMERCIAL, AND POLITICAL;
EXHIBITING
Its Relation to the Heavenly Bodies—its physical Structure—the
Natural History of each Country; and the Industry, Commerce,
Political Institutions, and Civil and Social state of all Nations.
BY HUGH MURRAY, F. R. S. E.
ASSISTED IN
Astronomy, &c. by Prof. Wallace, Geology, &c. by Prof. Jameson,
Botany, &c. by Prof. Hooker, Zoology, &c. by W. Swainson, Esq.
ILLUSTRATED BY EIGHTY-TWO MAPS,
And about Eleven Hundred other Engravings on Wood,
Representing the most remarkable objects of Nature and Art
in every region of the Globe.
TOGETHER WITH
A NEW MAP OF THE UNITED STATES.
REVISED, WITH ADDITIONS,
BY THOMAS G. BRADFORD.
TERMS.
The work will form Three large Super Royal Octavo Volumes,
containing in all eighteen hundred pages, or about six hundred pages
per volume, and illustrated by over ELEVEN HUNDRED WOOD ENGRAVINGS
AND MAPS.
To subscribers it will be delivered well and handsomely bound in
leather at Three Dollars and Fifty Cents per volume; or for Four
Dollars per volume it will be handsomely bound in extra gilt with
marbled edges and raised bands; or for Three Dollars per volume
it will be done up in embossed cloth.
The whole work is now so far advanced that no delay need be
apprehended in its early delivery.
The type is new and distinct—the illustrations have been engraved
by the best artists—the paper will be of fine quality, and in every
respect it will be handsomely executed.
EXTRACTS FROM THE ENGLISH PREFACE.
Deeply impressed with a sense of the great extent and difficult
execution of a complete Geographical work, the Editor, during nearly
ten years in which he has been engaged upon it, has used the utmost
exertion to procure from every quarter information and aid. He has
studiously collected the most recent, authentic, and accurate accounts
of the extent, natural features, population, productions, industry, political
constitution, literature, religion, and social state of the various
regions of the globe, with the leading details as to their districts and
cities. The sciences connected with the natural history of the earth
have, however, attained to such an extent and importance, that a
thorough knowledge of them can only be possessed by individuals
who have especially devoted themselves to one particular branch.
The Editor, therefore, considered it essential to procure the co-operation
of writers who had risen to acknowledged eminence in the
departments of Geology and Mineralogy, Zoology, and Botany. He
considered that he had fully succeeded, when Professor Jameson
undertook to delineate the geological structure of the globe, and the
distribution of minerals over its surface; Mr. Swainson to explain
the distribution of animals, and the most remarkable of those found
in each particular region; and Dr. Hooker to perform the same task
in regard to the vegetable kingdom. Professor Wallace has illustrated
the relations of the earth as a planet, the trigonometrical surveys,
the construction of maps, and other subjects connected with
mathematical science. These tasks have been executed in a manner
which, it is hoped, will fully support the high reputation of their respective
authors. Various parts relating to remote countries have
been revised by gentlemen recently returned from them. It is only
justice to add, that neither exertion nor expense has been spared by
the Publishers, to enable the Editor to render the work as perfect as
possible.
AMERICAN EDITION.
The American edition of the Encyclopædia of Geography has
been carefully revised and corrected throughout, and brought down
to the period of its publication by such modifications of the original
text as the nature of the changes to be made seemed to require
Thus new and more recent statements of the commercial, financial,
political, and other relations of countries have been often substituted
for those given in the English edition of the work, and the results
of late discoveries have been interwoven with the original matter, or
have served to rectify some antiquated error, the gradual removing
of which from our manuals forms at present an important part of
the task of the geographical compiler. The portion of the work relating
to the United States has been written anew, and fills two
hundred pages; that of the English edition comprising only thirty-three
pages and being extremely meagre. A new and larger map
of this country has also been given, and woodcuts have been added
to the chapter devoted to its description.
