First edition. Quarto. Publisher's original moire blue cloth with titles in gilt to the spine. Page edges untrimmed. Illustrated with a portrait frontispiece, large folding map (coloured in outline) and 30 plates (8 of which are hand-coloured) and charts. viii, xxxiv, 740pp. Original Remnant & Edmonds binder's notice tipped-in at the front free endpaper. A very good copy, the binding square and firm with a little wear to the head of the spine, some scattered marking to the boards and minor bumping to the corners. The contents with a little looseness at the gutter of the frontispiece, some occasional light scattered foxing (a little heavier to a few of the black and white plates) and a touch of offsetting to the map, are otherwise in very good order, clean throughout and remain free from any previous owners' inscriptions or stamps. An attractive copy in entirely original condition.
The first edition of Sir John Ross's wonderfully illustrated account of his second Arctic expedition. "As a result of the failure of his voyage in 1818, the Admiralty refused to support John Ross in a second expedition. It was not until 1829 that the assistance of Felix Booth, the sheriff of London, enabled him to set out in the small paddle-steamer 'Victory' with his nephew James Clark Ross as second-in-command. The expedition survived four winters in the Arctic, during which James Clark Ross discovered the North Magnetic Pole" (Hill, p.261). The plates include many of Eskimo costume and life, as well as the justly praised colour mezzotints showing the polar night sky. An appealing copy of this key work from the Golden age of Arctic Exploration. (Abbey Travel, 636; Hill, 1490; Sabin, 73381).
Stock code: 22453
£1,475