PBA Galleries

2 volumes, including Appendix. Volume One: [8], xxxiii, [1], 740 pp. Illustrated with 16 steel-engraved plates including frontispiece; 6 color lithographed plates (1 of which is a plan); 3 color mezzotints; 6 maps, one of which is the large folding chart of the Arctic regions with outline hand-coloring. 11x8¾. Appendix (or Volume II]: xii, 120, cxliv, cii, [1] pp. Illustrated with 20 lithographed plates, 12 of which are in color. 12½x9¾. Together, 2 volumes. 4to. Uniform original dark blue embossed cloth, spines gilt-lettered. First Edition, Large Paper Copies.

Scarce two-volume set and large paper issue, of this important account described in the Arctic Bibliography as "Narrative and scientific results of expedition to Boothia Peninsula in the Victory, and return by sledge, boat, and the Isabella. Expedition was financed by Felix Booth and led by Sir John Ross, with his nephew, James C. Ross, second in command and head naturalist”. The expedition survived for four winters in the Arctic, during which James Clark Ross discovered the North Magnetic Pole. Field lauds the "sumptuous printing which makes every page a picture, has even its luxury enhanced by the splendid steel engravings and lithographs... Everywhere through the narrative is interwoven the records of aboriginal life as it appeared to the explorers...." The Appendix is of particular importance for the study of Northern natives, 13 of the plates portray Natives, their costume and habitations. Arctic Bib. 14866; Field 1321; Hill p.261; Sabin 73381 & 73384. Ex-Northwestern Michigan College Library copy with their markings: call-numbers on spines, bookplates, circulating pocket and card, scattered rubberstamps (including page margins and verso of large folding chart), etc.