NARRATIVE OF A SECOND VOYAGE IN SEARCH OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE, and of a Residence in the Arctic Regions during the Years 1829, 1830, 1831, 1832, 1833. Including the Reports of Commander, now Captain, James Clark Ross... and the Discovery of the Northern Magnetic Pole.

First edition. Author's presentation copy. 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 (eight of which are hand-coloured) and charts. viii, xxxiv, 740pp. Contained within a custom made matching blue cloth slipcase. A very good copy, the binding square and firm with two small dents to the upper board. Recased, with the original spine neatly relaid; the corners strengthened and repaired. The contents, with some occasional light scattered foxing, are otherwise in very good order, clean throughout and remain free from any previous owner's inscriptions or stamps.

Inscribed in black ink to the head of the title page "To Ralph Abercrombie Esquire with the author's compliments". "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. A most uncommon author's presentation copy of this key work from the Golden age of Arctic Exploration. (Abbey Travel, 636; Hill, 1490; Sabin, 73381).