"This amazing journal of journeys takes us around the world and beyond. Water, from Viking voyages to Amazonian adventures... Land ...from Saharan sands to the wild, wild West... Ice and snow ...from Arctic ice to snowy summits... Man and machine ...from fearless fliers to lunar landings... and leaves us wondering: where next?"

Resting one night on a boat on the River Thames, Charlie Marlow tells his friends about his experiences as a steamboat captain on the River Congo. There, in the heart of Africa, his search for the extraordinary Mr. Kurtz caused him to question his own nature and values-- and the nature and values of his society.

Offers a look into the life of Matthew Henson, from his humble birth to his crucial role in the discovery of the North Pole.

"At sixteen, Edward Beauclerk Maurice impulsively signed up with the Hudson's Bay Company, the Company of Gentleman Adventurers, and was sent to an isolated trading post in the Canadian Arctic, where there was no telephone or radio and only one ship arrived each year. But the Inuit people who traded there taught him how to track polar bears, build igloos, and survive expeditions in ferocious winter storms. He learned their language and became so immersed...

"The summer of 1871, a team of thirty-two men set out on the first scientific expedition across Yellowstone. Through uncharted territory, some of the day's most renowned scientists and artists explored, sampled, sketched, and photographed the region's breathtaking wonders--from its white-capped mountain vistas and thundering falls to its burping mud pots and cauldrons of molten magma. At the end of their adventure, the survey packed up their specimens...