Spinifex and Sand. A Narrative of Five Years’ Pioneering and Exploration in Western Australia

A$2,500 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

Limited edition

London : C. Arthur Pearson, 1898. Thick large octavo, publisher s sand-coloured cloth over boards, upper board illustrated and lettered in black (corners a little bumped, spine dulled as usual), spine with gilt lettering and decoration, top edge gilt; ; pp xvi, 454, portrait frontispiece and a total of 47 photographic plates and line illustrations, 4 folding maps (2 in rear endpocket), contemporary owner s name to endpaper (James Threlfall, April 1st, 1901), hinges a little cracked else a very good copy. David Wynford Carnegie, a gold prospector, arrived in Western Australia in 1892. This work is his account of the epic expedition undertaken in 1896-1897, on which he led his party of five men (including an Aboriginal guide, Warri) and nine camels from Coolgardie across the Gibson Desert and Great Sandy Desert to Hall s Creek in the East Kimberley and back. Carnegie met a tragic early end when he died from a poisoned arrow wound in Nigeria in 1900. Ferguson 7960; Wantrup 196a.

• Binding: Hardcover

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