The countries of the world : being a popular description of the various continents, islands, rivers, seas, and peoples of the globe . o skate on. Jiiaii Fcrnandc:, S/. Amhrose, St. Felix, and other small basaltic isles, without coralon their shores, lie about 400 miles from the Chilian coast. Juan Fernandez—or Mas-a-tierra—is the largest and most famous of these, from the notion that it was the sceneof Robinson Crusoes adventures, as related by Defoe. In reality, though Alexander Selkirkpassed four years in solitude on this isle, there is no proof whatever, contrary to the 4 THE COUNTRIES OF T
The countries of the world : being a popular description of the various continents, islands, rivers, seas, and peoples of the globe . o skate on. Jiiaii Fcrnandc:, S/. Amhrose, St. Felix, and other small basaltic isles, without coralon their shores, lie about 400 miles from the Chilian coast. Juan Fernandez—or Mas-a-tierra—is the largest and most famous of these, from the notion that it was the sceneof Robinson Crusoes adventures, as related by Defoe. In reality, though Alexander Selkirkpassed four years in solitude on this isle, there is no proof whatever, contrary to the 4 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD. usual belief, that his adventures suggested, far less supplied, the famous romancist with theparticulars, which he afterwards so skilfully worked uj) into the adventures of the waywardmariner of York. Indeed, a glance at Robinson Crusoes autobiography will show that theyare located on an island near the mouth of the Orinoco, and a very slight acquaintancewith Defoes works will convince the reader that a man capable of writing the VoyageRound the World, and the Adventures of Colonel Jack, required no prompting from. VIEW IN KING CHARLES ISLAND, ONE OF THE GALAPAGOS GKOl I. the rather dull buccaneering coxswain of the Cinque Ports galley to give his novelthat verisimilitude which has gained for it immortality and a popularity only limitedby the range of the printing press. The island itself is ten or twelve miles long, andabout four broad, and is for the most part wild and mountainous, the highest peak, thatof the Yunques, or Anvil, being about 3,000 feet above the sea level. The valleys are,however, well wooded and fertile, and yield oats, turnips, apjtles, cherries, strawberries,melons, peaches, grapes, figs, sandal wood, myrtle, the chuta (a species of palm)—bearinga rich fruit—the cork tree, and other varieties of timber. There are few wild animals,but numbers of goats, the offspring of tame ones which had been landed there, now
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Keywords: ., bookcentury180, bookdecade1870, bookpublisherlondon, bookyear1876
