THE GEOLOGY OF RUSSIA IN EUROPE AND THE URAL MOUNTAINS. de MURCHISON, Roderick Impey, Edouard de VERNEUIL, Alexander von KEYSERLING.: - 1845

London, John Murray, 1845.. FIRST EDITION 1845, Volume I ONLY of 2, DEFECTIVE COPY LACKING 3 LITHOGRAPHS NOW REPLACED WITH SLIGHTLY SMALLER FACSIMILES. 4to, approximately 305 x 230 mm, 12 x 9 inches, engraved Dedication leaf, addressed to Emperor Nicholas I, 12 monotinted lithographic plates of views including frontispiece, 3 in facsimile, 2 lithographed plates of fossils in the Appendix, 5 folding hand coloured engraved plates of sections and 2 large folded hand coloured engraved maps, the last large map of Russia and Ural Mountains approximately 780 x 620 mm, 31 x 24 inches, numerous drawings and diagrams in the text, pages: xxiv, (pages 1-8 wrongly inserted between pages xvi-xxiv), 40 leaves with facing pages with the same number, 41-700 including index, lacks half-title. Rebound in modern quarter morocco, 2 gilt lettered red labels to spine, blue cloth covers, all edges gilt, new cream endpapers. Frontispiece and Dedication page laid down on cream paper, both with pale staining, pale staining to title page and plates, affecting a few text pages either side of plates, a few text pages have darker stains with tide marks, all text legible, small pale blue stain affecting to top inner margin of pages 311-345, not affecting text, 2 small repairs to 1 fold on the blank side of the large folding map, slight pale foxing to folding colour plates, mostly to blank side or margins, some minor pale staining or spot to margins. A good working copy of Volume I with the 2 important maps. Roderick Murchison (1792-1871) born in Scotland to a family of landowners was educated at military college and served briefly in the Peninsular War. For several years he was a gentleman of leisure but a chance acquaintance with Humphry Davy turned his interest to science. He settled in London devoted himself to geology, elected a fellow of the Geological Society in 1825 and of the Royal Society in 1826. In 1831 he was made president of the Geological Society holding office until 1833 and again from 1841-1843. His first great achievement was to describe and investigate a major system of strata which he called Silurian, publishing his findings in The Silurian System (1830). He travelled to Russia in 1840 and 1841 and to Scandinavia in 1844. He was accompanied by the French palaeontologist Edouard de Verneuil whose researches were incorporated into Volume II, and by the German geologist and palaeontologist Count Alexander Keyserling a personal friend of Tsar Nicholas I to whom this work is dedicated. Part I contains the following chapters: Silurian rocks of Scandinavia - Silurian rocks of Russia - Devonian, or old red system - Carboniferous system - Carboniferous region between the Dnieper and the Don - Carboniferous rocks on the western flank of the Ural mountains - Permian system - Permian rocks of the north on the rivers Dwina and Pinega - Jurassic or oolitic systems - Cretaceous system - Tertiary deposits; Part II (page 335): The Ural mountains - North Ural of the Miners - the Arctic Ural and the Timan range - South Ural - Ancient surface of the Ural mountains - Scandinavian drift and erratic blocks in Russia - Black earth. Terrestrial changes in Russia. Pages 191-662 contain the Appendix with articles by various authors numbered A-Q, the longest being Palaeozoic Corals of Russia by W. Lonsdale with several text illustrations and a plate; and On the Teeth of Ichthyolites by Professor R. Owen with a plate. There follows a detailed description of the plates, sections and maps, the Corrigenda and the index. See: Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Volume IX, pages 582-585. Nicholas I, who commissioned Murchison's survey, The Geology of Russia in Europe and the Ural Mountains detailing this mineral-rich region (1845). The book contains 7 hand coloured plates, comprising 5 cross-sections and 2 geologic maps. Plate 6 is a geologic map titled "Russia in Europe and the Ural Mountains, and has been described as "one of the the finest hand coloured map ever produced". The map was drawn and engraved by John Arrowsmith. MORE IMAGES ATTACHED TO THIS LISTING, ALL ZOOMABLE, FURTHER IMAGES ON REQUEST. POSTAGE AT COST.