PBA Galleries

[8], xxxiii, [1], 740, [1] pp. Thirty plates, many handsomely colored, and partially colored folding map. (4to) 29.5x23.2 cm (11½x9”), three-quarter leather over black cloth, gilt spine titles and decorations.

A large paper copy of this handsome work.  Despite the failure of his earlier trip in 1818, Ross set out in 1829 in the small ship, Victory, to find a northwest passage, but the boat had to be abandoned in 1832.  Ross and his party were eventually rescued in the summer of 1833 in Lancaster Sound.  In the meantime, Capt. George Back had set out in search of Ross.  His account of his explorations was published the year after this volume appeared.  The greatest scientific yield of the trip was the discovery of the Magnetic Pole.  The many plates are listed in detail in Abbey.  The large map, "...Chart of Discoveries in the Arctic Regions...," shows the route of exploration around King Williams land and the Gulf of Boothia.  A number of the attractive plates depict the natives and events during the voyage.