Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa; With Accounts of the Manners and Customs of the People, And of the Chase of the Gorilla, The Crocodile, Leopard, Elephant, Hippopotamus, and Other Animals

New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1861. First American edition. Hardcover. Near Fine. 8vo. [1] (pages of publisher's advertisements), [3], vi-xxii, [1], 26-531, [1], 4 (pages of publisher's advertisements), [2] pp. Recently half-bound in red leather over red cloth with edges ruled in gilt, spine with five raised bands, gilt decorations, and two black leather labels with gilt lettering. Endpapers and pastedowns are dark mauve. Two page frontispiece depicting a gorilla. The volume is illustrated by a fold-out map, and numerous plates and illustrations of the animals and of the local people Du Chaillu observed and encountered. Du Chaillu was a French-American zoologist and anthropologist, best-known for providing definitive scientific evidence of the existence of gorillas and for confirming the existence of an African pygmy tribe. Du Chaillu also recorded observations of several different species of animals in the equatorial region of central Africa and he brought back thirty-nine types of bird specimens from his travels. This is a handsome copy of one of the earliest books to feature an illustration of a gorilla, a fascinating story of exploration. A Near Fine book with some offsetting to a few leaves and a tape repair to the fold-out map, else Fine.