Jules Verne 
The exploration of the World [EPUB ebook] 

In this chief of his works, Jules Verne has set himself to tell the story of all the most stirring adventures of which we have any written record — to give the history, "from the time of Hanno and Herodotus down to that of Livingstone and Stanley, " of those voyages of exploration and discovery which are among the most thrilling episodes in the history of human enterprise.