The American is naturally proud of his country, its substantial growth and wonderful development, and of the rapid strides it is making among the foremost nations of the world. No matter how far elsewhere the American citizen may have travelled, he cannot know too much of the United States, its grand attractions and charming environment. Though this great and vigorous nation is young, yet it has a history that is full of interest, and a literature giving a most absorbing story of rapid growth and patriotic progress, replete with romance, poetry and a unique folklore.

The object of this work is to give the busy reader in acceptable form such a comprehensive knowledge as he would like to have, of the geography, history, picturesque attractions, peculiarities, productions and most salient features of our great country. The intention has been to make the book not only a work of reference, but a work of art and of interest as well, and it is burdened neither with too much statistics nor too intricate prolixity of description. It covers the Continent of North America, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian Dominion and Alaska. It has been prepared mainly from notes specially taken by the author during many years of extended travel all over the United States and Canada. A method of treatment of the comprehensive subject has been followed which is similar to the plan that has proved acceptable in "England, Picturesque and Descriptive." The work has been arranged in twenty-one tours, each volume beginning at the older settlements upon the Atlantic seaboard; and each tour describing a route following very much the lines upon which a travelling sightseer generally advances in the respective directions taken. The book is presented to the public as a contribution to a general knowledge of our country, and with the hope that the reader, recognizing the difficulties of adequate treatment of so great a subject, may find in the interest it inspires, an indulgent excuse for any shortcomings.

J.C

Philadelphia, September, 1900.