<DIV><p>Perry McDonough Collins was the first American to journey through Siberia and down the 2,690-mile Amur River to the Pacific Ocean. In 1860 he wrote <I>A Voyage Down the Amoor</I>, an account of his adventures, and his book proved so popular that it was reissued in 1864. <I>Siberian Journey</I> consists of Collins's original text framed by an interpretive introduction and explanatory notes by Charles Vevier, providing an extensive, first-hand account of Russia's land and its people in the mid–nineteenth century.</p></DIV>