Mémoires et observations géographique et critiques sur la situation des pays septentrionaux de l'Asie et l'Amérique de ENGEL, Samuel (1702-1784) - 1765

Lausanne: Antoine Chapuis, 1765. Quarto. Title in red and black, engraved vignette on dedication page. 2 engraved folding maps. Contemporary mottled calf, gilt stamp on upper cover, minor repairs to top and tail of spine Provenance: Marinens Bibliothek; deaccessioned by the Garnisions Biblioteket in 2017 The first edition of Engel's important Arctic geography. Engel availed himself of the most up-to-date geographic intelligence on the region by explorers and cartographers such as Kirilov, Buache, Delisle, and Gmelin, evaluating each in order to come to a more accurate picture of the Arctic. He stated definitively that California was not an island but rather a peninsula and rejected the fantastical Sea of the West asserted by Buache and Delisle. On the other hand, his critiques of Müller's map of Siberia were unfounded, and his understanding of the rivers of Western North America was described by Wagner as characterized by remarkable imagination. The maps are by the Swiss cartographer Jacques Antony Chovin. "Contains accounts of the Cabrillo, De Fonte and De Fuca exploring voyages up the Pacific coast and definitively refuted the conception of Californian insularity" (Howes). Lada-Mocarski notes that Engel "examined diligently the maps and writings of Kirilov (the compiler of the first Russian atlas), Buache, Delisle, Muller, Gmelin, and others--and invariably, with some justification, found something wrong with each of them. He examined these works with regard to the northern parts of both Asia and America. Most of the questions he raised were valid and the present-day student of these regions would profit by reading his work with a modern maps before him, to see who was right or wrong--and when wrong, how wrong. A valuable part of Engel's present work is his rejection of the persistent belief held by many of his contemporary geographers and cartographers that California was an island. He unequivocally asserted... that (in translation), 'California is not an island but a peninsula.'" Howes E-149; Lada-Mocarski 18; Sabin 22571; Streeter sale 3460; Wickersham 3542.