Kitchi-Gami: Wanderings Round Lake Superior

Johann Georg Kohl was a German travel writer, historian and geographer Kohl's main scientific work, "Der Verkehr und die Ansiedlungen der Menschen in ihrer Abhangigkeit von der Gestalt der Erdoberflache" ("Transportation and settlement of people and their dependence on surface terrain") (1841, 1850) is regarded as the founding document of modern transport and urban geography Using Moscow as an example, he formulated a mathematical theory for the development of spherical cities and how eventually these cities would develop skyscrapers and underground shopping centers From 1854 to 1858, he traveled in the United States and prepared some valuable maps for the US government, and at the request of the United States Coast Survey prepared two reports: "History of the Discovery of the U S Coast" and the "History and Investigation of the Gulf Stream" (Bremen, 1868) Kohl's book "Reisen in Canada und durch die Staaten von New York und Pennsylvanien" ("Travels in Canada and the States of New York and Pennsylvania"; 1856) is still consulted for historical study into Pennsylvania Dutch

This is the first English edition of this valuable and extensive treatise on Native American life, particularly about the Ojibway of Lake Superior, considered to be one of the best books on the Lake Superior country A statement about the work from the Museum of the Fur Trade Quarterly:"During his visit with the Lake Superior Ojibwa in 1855, he made useful and unbiased studies of their material culture, religion, and folklore The extent of Kohl's observations is really amazing"He provides a fascinating study in contrasts and similarities An urbane, well-traveled European, a trained ethnologist, and an accomplished popular writer, he visited the Ojibway in 1855 and turned his sensitive powers of observation on a nation of people he found not unlike his own He describes daily life, detailing fur trade, canoe building, domestic utensils, quillwork, native foods, hunting, fishing, trapping, cooking, toboggans, snowshoes, gardening, lodge building, games, warfare, religious practices, legends, medicines, homes, clothing, and methods to travel Kohl's respect for the Ojibway makes his writing especially appealing to the modern readerThe text terminates with with a 32-page publisher's catalog dated December 1859Field 842; Howes K247; Sabin 38215

This volume is housed in a late 19th century 3/4 leather binding with marbled boards and shows some external age/wear, concentrated at the extremities The front board is detached and the first few leaves are weakly attached The edges of the text block are decorated with a speckled patterning Library treatments appear in the form of items adhered to the endpapers and a stamp and notations to the title page and its verso The pages are clean with only a very small amount of occasional marks