FROM PARIS
TO
NEW YORK
BY LAND

BY
HARRY DE WINDT
F.R.G.S.

THOMAS NELSON & SONS

LONDON, EDINBURGH, DUBLIN AND NEW YORK

TO MY WIFE

[Pg vii]

PREFACE

Many who read the following account of our long land journey will notunnaturally ask: "What was the object of this stupendous voyage, or thereward to be gained by this apparently unnecessary risk of life andendurance of hardships?"

I would reply that my primary purpose was to ascertain the feasibilityof constructing a railway to connect the chief cities of France andAmerica, Paris and New York. The European Press was at the time of ourdeparture largely interested in this question, which fact induced theproprietors of the Daily Express of London, the Journal of Paris,and the New York World to contribute towards the expenses of theexpedition. Another reason is one with which I fancy most Englishmenwill readily sympathise—viz., the feat had never before been performed,and my first attempt to accomplish it in 1896 (with New York as thestarting-point) had failed half way on the Siberian shores of BeringStraits.

The invaluable assistance rendered by the United States Government inthe despatch of a revenue cutter to our relief on the Siberian coast isduly acknowledged in another portion of this volume, but I would hereexpress my sincere thanks to the "Compagnie Internationale desWagonslits" for furnishing the expedition[Pg viii] with a free pass from Paristo the city of Irkutsk, in Eastern Siberia. In America the "SouthernPacific" and "Wabash" Lines extended the same courtesies, thus enablingus to travel free of cost across the United States, as guests of two ofthe most luxurious railways in the world.

45 Avenue Kléber, Paris,
October 1903.

CONTENTS