R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
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(Excerpt): "Everyone has heard of those ponies-those shaggy, chubby, innocent-looking little creatures-for which the world is indebted, we suppose, to Shetland. Well, once on a time, one of the most innocent looking, chubbiest, and shaggiest of Shetland ponies-a dark brown one-stood at the door of a mansion in the west-end of London. It was attached to a wickerwork vehicle, which resembled a large clothesbasket on small wheels. We do not mean, of...
42) Rivers of Ice
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Excerpt: "On a certain summer morning, about the middle of the present century, a big bluff man, of seafaring aspect, found himself sauntering in a certain street near London Bridge. He was a man of above fifty, but looked under forty in consequence of the healthful vigor of his frame, the freshness of his saltwater face, and the blackness of his shaggy hair."
44) Erling the Bold
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This is a tale of a Sea rover, or Viking as they're called. In the author's own words: The present tale is founded chiefly on the information conveyed in that most interesting work by Snorro Sturleson 'The Heimskringla, or Chronicles of the Kings of Norway.' It is translated from the Icelandic. On perceiving the intention of the Danes to attack him, Erling's heart was glad, because he now felt sure that to some extent he had them in his power. If...
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(Excerpt): "Dear Periwinkle,-Since that memorable, not to say miserable, day, when you and I parted at Saint Katherine's Docks, with the rain streaming from our respective noses-rendering tears superfluous, if not impossible-and the noise of preparation for departure damaging the fervor of our "farewell"-since that day. I have ploughed with my "adventurous keel" upwards of six thousand miles of the "main," and now write to you from the wild Karroo...
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(Excerpt): "A solitary horseman-a youth in early manhood-riding at a snail's pace over the great plains, or karroo, of South Africa. His chin on his breast; his hands in the pockets of an old shooting-coat; his legs in ragged trousers, and his feet in worn-out boots. Regardless of stirrups, the last are dangling. The reins hang on the neck of his steed, whose head may be said to dangle from its shoulders, so nearly does its nose approach the ground....
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Set in the outback of Canada this book unfolds in the area with which Ballantyne was so familiar. If you like to read about this area you will find lots in this book to amuse you. (Excerpt from Chapter I): "On the northern shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence there stood, not very long ago, a group of wooden houses, which were simple in construction and lowly in aspect. The region around them was a vast uncultivated, uninhabited solitude. The road...
48) Hudson Bay
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Excerpt: "Reader,-I take for granted that you are tolerably well acquainted with the different modes of life and travelling peculiar to European nations. I also presume that you know something of the inhabitants of the East; and, it may be, a good deal of the Americans in general. But I suspect-at least I would fain hope-that you have only a vague and indefinite knowledge of life in those wild, uncivilized regions of the northern continent of America...
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(Excerpt): "A Surprise, a Combat, and a Feed. There is a river in America, which flows to the northwestward of Great Bear Lake, and helps to drain that part of the great wilderness into the Arctic Sea. It is an insignificant stream compared with such well-known waterways as the Mackenzie and the Coppermine; nevertheless it is large enough to entice the white whale and the seal into its waters every spring, and it becomes a resting-place for myriads...
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The Dog Crusoe and His Master A Story of Adventure in the Western Prairies by R. M. Ballantyne Who doesn't like a story that involves a great dog and his young master and friends? In this book you will share their action packed journey and adventures as they wander through the Western prairies with a mission to bring peace between the white population and the assorted Indian tribes. They face many perils and become heroes many times over.
51) The Eagle Cliff
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It is the story of young John Barret an active sportsman, who with his friends Bob Mabberly and Giles Jackman sail off on a vacation in Bob's father's yacht and are promptly ship-wrecked on a Scottish isle. The entire crew is saved and John is sent off to find help. He does so in the young 'Tonald' (Donald) who guides him to one of the small villages on the island. The next day, John travels to Kinlossie to tell the 'Laird' of the island the story...
52) The Island Queen
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Castaways in a sea of danger! Pauline, Otto, and Dominick were children cast into the wild South Sea's ocean. The brave Rigonda family of England, however, clung to life on their lifeboat despite the demise of the rest of the castaways, searching weakly for a sail in the distance. Instead, they found a dead ship, wrecked on a reef. And the reef, most fortunately, was by an island. They were castaways, little Robinson Crusoes on an exotic volcanic...
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Excerpt: "Towards the close of a bright and warm day, between fifty and sixty years ago, a solitary man might have been seen, mounted on a mule, wending his way slowly up the western slopes of the Andes. Although decidedly inelegant and unhandsome, this specimen of the human family was by no means uninteresting. He was so large, and his legs were so long, that the contrast between him and the little mule, which he bestrode, was ridiculous. He was...
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(Excerpt): "There is a particular spot in those wild regions which lie somewhere near the northern parts of Baffin's Bay, where Nature seems to have set up her workshop for the manufacture of icebergs, where Polar bears, in company with seals and Greenland whales, are wont to gambol, and where the family of Jack Frost may be said to have taken permanent possession of the land. One winter day, in the early part of the eighteenth century, a solitary...
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In this story, the follow-up look at what happened with the escaped mutineers of the famous ship the H.M.S. Bounty. It begins with a recounting of the famous mutiny and the casting adrift of Captain Bligh instigated by Fletcher Christian and his comrades due to severe treatment of the men by the infamous Captain. After a brief stay on the island of Otaheite the mutineers finally resolve to find an uninhabited remote island to spend the rest of their...
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When Bill was a baby-a round-faced, large-eyed, fat-legged baby, as unlike to the bronzed, whiskered, strapping seaman who went by the name of "Fighting Bill" as a jackdaw is to a marlinespike-when Bill was a baby, his father used to say he was just cut out for a sailor; and he was right, for the urchin was overflowing with vigor and muscular energy. He was utterly reckless, and very earnest-we might almost say desperately earnest. Whatever he undertook...
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(Excerpt): "On a dark November afternoon, not many years ago, Captain Boyns sat smoking his pipe in his own chimney-corner, gazing with a somewhat anxious expression at the fire. There was cause for anxiety, for there raged at the time one of the fiercest storms that ever blew on the shores of England. The wind was howling in the chimney with wild fury; slates and tiles were being swept off the roofs of the fishermen's huts and whirled up into the...
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Skipping Rabbit is the daughter of Bounding Bull. Then, observing another gleam of surprise and triumph on the chief's face, she added quickly, "and the Blackfoot knows that Bounding Bull and his tribe are very strong, very courageous, and very revengeful. If Moonlight and Skipping Rabbit are not sent home at once, there will be war on the mountains and the plains, for Whitewing, the great chief of the prairies, is just now in the camp of Bounding...