Obvious typesetting errors have been corrected. Obvious spelling errors in foreign language references have been corrected. Inconsistencies in spelling have been normalized unless otherwise noted below. Questionable or vintage spelling has been left as printed in the original publication.

Footnotes in the original publication were marked with symbols at the page level. Sequential footnote numbering has been applied and all footnotes have been relocated to the end of the text.

Variations in spelling for Musselman/Mussulman left as printed in original publication.

Punctuation marks to establish phrasing (i. e., commas and semi-colons) that were placed inside a closing parenthesis have been moved outside the parenthesis.

Page 3: A chapter heading entitled "NORTH AMERICA." has been added for consistency with chapters listed in the publication's Contents pages.

Page 14 (footnote 6): Page number reference for "Notes on Africa" are missing in the original publication.

Page 20 (footnote 17): "Grande Maison, dite de Moetezuma" changed to "Grande Maison, dite de Moctezuma".

Page 26: The second footnote on this page has been converted to appear as block text, consistent with the remainder of the publication in which lists of "Recent Works" appear at the conclusion of a given section. The footnote marker has been removed.

Page 30: Removed stray opening quotation mark mid-sentence that was not closed. 'From the base of this structure "commences an inclined'.

Page 48: The footnote on this page has been converted to appear as block text, consistent with the remainder of the publication in which lists of "Recent Works" appear at the conclusion of a given section. The footnote marker has been removed.

Page 69: A chapter heading entitled "ASIA." has been added for consistency with chapters listed in the publication's Contents pages.

Page 87 (footnote 70): The paragraph beginning "The first created man was composed of the four elements..." contains unmatched quotation marks in the original publication and has been left as printed.

Page 92 (footnote 75B): Opening text 'See a note to the "Dabistan," Vol. I. p. in which...' is missing the page number ("p.") in the original publication.

Page 93: Changed "ArchÆmenian" to "AchÆmenian" in the following sentence (as originally printed): "Various combinations of a figure shaped like a wedge, together with one produced by the union of two wedges, constitute the system of writing employed by the ancient Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes, and the ArchÆmenian kings of Persia."

Page 107: Original publication is missing a numeral in what is presumably a year in the 1800's. Transcribed here as "18_3".

Page 126: Added a footnote marker for footnote 105 at the end of this sentence: "The last volume of the Annals of the Propaganda Society contains an interesting narrative of a journey into Mongolia, by the Rev. Mr. Huc."