PREFACE
This book is intended to be used as a reader in connection with the study of geography. It is hoped that it will put life into the skeletons known as the maps and clothe them with the flesh and blood of human interest, making the various countries and peoples of Asia a living whole in the minds of the children. It may be used also for the teaching of reading, the story holding the pupil's attention and at the same time giving him an introduction to the study of geography and training him to think along geographical lines.
Instead of the title chosen, the book might be called "A Trip over Asia with the Children"; for it is the record of a personally conducted tour of the Asiatic continent which is supposed to be made by every child who reads it. It is the children who do the traveling over seas and lands, and it is they who visit their little world brothers and sisters, seeing them at their work and their play, staying with them in their homes and learning just how they live. It is the children who, as they travel over the several countries, observe the geographical features which have so much to do with making those countries what they are, and in creating the industries and the place which their inhabitants have in the commerce and work of the world. In these travels the children learn things by their own experiences and observations. They study the oceans on the steamers, and see the work of the great rivers as they travel upon them in boats. It is the same with the
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