Colvocoresses, George M.:

$500 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

FOUR YEARS IN THE GOVERNMENT EXPLORING EXPEDITION; COMMANDED BY CAPTAIN CHARLES WILKES, TO THE ISLAND OF MADEIRA - CAPE VERD ISLANDS - BRAZIL - COAST OF PATAGONIA - CHILI - PERU - PAUMATO GROUP - ... This copy bears a contemporary presentation inscription on the recto of the first free endpaper: "To Columbus W. Seely / from his friend / D.W. Holly / U.S. Review Office / 251 Broadway Office N.Y. / October 14th 1853." David W. Holly was publisher and editor of the United States Review at about this time. This copy also bears the bookplate of the noted Alaska bibliographer, Valerian Lada-Mocarski, and his wife on the front pastedown.Second edition, after the first of the previous year. "Colvocoresses, a naval officer, saw extensive service throughout the world, including taking part in the overland expedition of the Wilkes expedition in 1841 from Vancouver Island to San Francisco. He was mysteriously murdered in Bridgeport, Connecticut, thirty years later" - Hill. His account, based on a journal he kept during his travels, is a most readable overview of the people, scenery, and events encountered by the Wilkes expedition. Illustrated with many nice engravings of west coast scenes, whales, icebergs, the Hawaiian palm tree, the "Puebla of Los Angeles," and many natural history subjects. This second edition contains only seventeen plates, whereas the very rare first edition contains nineteen. One of the plates that has been excluded from this edition would comprise pages 319 and 32

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