In Australian Tropics

London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd, 1907. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. London, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., 1907. Octavo, xxiv, 374 pages plus 56 plates and a large folding map. Blue cloth (lettered in gilt on the spine and front cover) a little marked and lightly worn; top edge gilt, others uncut; folding map a little creased and torn, with some clear tape repairs to the verso; mild signs of age and use; a very good copy. The author was 'Fourteen years Sub-collector of Customs at Port Darwin'. The six-page preface is by Ernest Whitington, an Adelaide journalist. Provenance: 'Stephen King "Calta Wurlie" | May 1908' is written in ink on the front free endpaper. Stephen King Jr (1841-1915), sketcher and surveyor, accompanied John McDouall Stuart on the first transcontinental expedition in 1861-63. He later worked as a surveyor under George Goyder in Darwin, and on the Overland Telegraph. Chapter XV: 'Stuart's Tree' has a dogear corner on leaf 275/6, which contains details of Stuart's graveside obelisk, and makes reference to the Overland Telegraph: 'Survivors of the expedition to-day say that the telegraph scheme was constantly in the mind of the great explorer, and he loved to predict that some of his party would live to see consummated the bridging of the continent, not merely by telegraph, but by railway'. King was the last survivor of the eleven members of this famous expedition. 'Calta Wurlie' was the name of King's house in the Adelaide suburb of Kensington; it still stands today. Loosely inserted is a postal cover addressed to one of King's daughters.