TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE

This is Volume I of a two-volume set. The second volume can be found at:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/59469 .

This 1875 edition originally was published in eight separatebooks as a subscription publication. The Preface, Titlepages, Tables of Contents and Lists of Illustrations (theFront Matter) were published in the final eighth book, andreferenced books 1-4 as Volume I, and books 5-8 as Volume II.This etext follows the same two-volume structure. Therelevant Front Matter has been moved to the front of eachvolume, and some illustrations have been moved to where thetwo Lists of Illustrations indicate they should be. No textwas added or changed when the books were seamlessly joinedto make Volume I and Volume II.

The Index, at the end of Volume II in the original books, has been copiedand placed at the end of this first volume as well.

When reading this book on the web, the Index and the List of Illustrations have active links to pages in both volumes.When reading on a handheld device only the internal links within this volumeare active.

Footnote anchors are denoted by [number], and the footnotes have beenplaced at the end of each chapter.

Some tables in the original book had } or { bracketing in some cells.These brackets are not helpful in the etext tables and in most caseshave been removed to improve readability and save table space.

Many minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book.