[Illustration: FRONTISPIECE, THE AUTHOR IN SIBERIAN COSTUME]




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.

The journey herein recorded was undertaken partly as a pleasure trip,
partly as a journalistic enterprise, and partly in the interest of the
company that attempted to carry out the plans of Major Collins to make
an electric connection between Europe and the United States by way of
Asia and Bering's Straits. In the service of the Russo-American
Telegraph Company, it may not be improper to state that the author's
official duties were so few, and his pleasures so numerous, as to