Beechey, Captain Frederick William: NARRATIVE OF A VOYAGE TO THE PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT, to co-operate with the Polar Expeditions: Performed in His Majesty's Ship Blossom, under the Command of Captain F. W. Beechey, R.N. F.R.S., F.R.A.S., and F.R.G.S. in the Years, 1825, 26, 27, 28. Published by Authority of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. In Two Parts. Part I [II]. 2 parts in 1 vol., 4to, First Edition; Part I, pp. [iii]-xxiv, [v]-[viii](Contents of Part II, with Erratum slip to Vol. II affixed below the Directions to the Binder on Page [viii]), 392; 3 charts (2 folding), 14 plates, 1 text illust.; Part II, pp. [iii-iv](title-page to Part II), [393]-742; 9 plates, 16 appendices (including Fossil Remains, Mexican Bees, Esquimaux Vocabulary, Nautical Remarks and 12 additional numbered appendices with commentary and tables of geophysical and meteorological observations); bound without the half-titles or the seldom seen advertisement leaf in full contemporary calf (a little rubbed; front joint repaired; some foxing of plates as usual, but a very good copy); very scarce. London; Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley; MDCCCXXXI [1831].
***This edition not in Du Rietz (but see his 68); Ferguson 1418; Forbes 772. This, the so-called "Admiralty Edition", was published earlier in the same year as the octavo edition (see Ferguson 1419) which according to Du Rietz is partly rewritten. This preferred edition also has more extensive appendices, all but two of the numbered appendices being omitted from the later octavo edition. The work includes an account of Pitcairn Island and its inhabitants (including 3 plates), also Tahiti and other Pacific islands, Kotzebue Sound, San Francisco and an account of China. The expedition made two visits to Hawaii at an important time when a treaty was signed with the United States government, and there is commentary on this and other political matters. #67076
