DescriptionOver 400 years before Columbus "discovered" the New World, it is believed that someone else already had - Icelander Bjarni Herjolfsson. Over the years 985-986, Herjolfsson was attempting to reach Eirik the Red's colony on Greenland when he was blown off-course. He sighted a coastline covered with woods, and thus was the first to glimpse a piece of North America. This fascinating collection includes the complete "Greenlanders' Saga" and "Eirik the Red's Saga, " as well as selections from "The Book of the Icelander" and "The Book of the Settlements." Also included are commentaries on sailing techniques, and historical and cultural background.
DescriptionExplorer, adventurer and linguistic genius, Sir Richard Francis Burton was the first Englishman to enter Mecca, the holy city of Muslims. Fluent in Arabic and the traditions of Islam, Burton joined the hajj - the pilgrimage to Mecca - incognito. The Royal Geographical Society hoped Burton's efforts would add detail to the "huge white blot" on their Arabian maps. His resulting Pilgrimage to Medina and Mecca was of great anthropological and literary merit, and brought him much notoriety.
DescriptionWhen President Thomas Jefferson acquired the Louisiana Purchase - the vast, unknown lands between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico - he promptly established an expedition to map America's new frontier. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark outfitted the "Corps of Discovery, " and on May 14, 1804, 45 men in 3 boats set off up the Mississippi. The trip took 2 years and 4 months, and the record of the expedition contained in the journals of its courageous leaders is a fascinating story of adventure, hardship, and discovery. Excerpted from History of the Lewis and Clark Expedition edited by Nicholas Biddle and narrated by Norman Dietz, The Journals of Lewis and Clark recreates the history and spirit of the men who mapped the frontier.
DescriptionIn 1895, when Captain Joshua Slocum completed the first solo circumnavigation on his 37-foot sloop, the Spray, no one believed it could be done. This firsthand account of Captain Slocum's remarkable voyage - 3 years and 46, 000 miles - is full of adventures, dangers, and triumphs. Stormy seas, hostile natives, Moorish pirates, and even a bizarre meeting with President Paul Kruger of the Transvaal, who insisted that Slocum could never have sailed "around the world, " since everyone with the meanest intelligence knew the world was flat, make up the fabric of the most wonderful travelogue of all.
DescriptionWhen geologist Otto Lidenbrock discovers an ancient manuscript describing a passageway to the center of the Earth, he prepares a subterranean expedition, and descends into an extinct volcano in Iceland. The explorers discover an amazing underground world, but will they ever return? Journey with these intrepid travelers as they dare to descend into a mysterious unknown world deep within the earth.
