Narrative Of A Journey To The Shores Of The Polar Sea, In The Years 1819, 20, 21, And 22

London: John Murray, 1823., 1823. 4to. pp. xvi, 768. lacking half-title & errata slip. 30 plates, engraved by Edward Finden & J.Curtis after drawings by Curtis, George Back & Robert Hood (11 hand-coloured - 9 of these aquatints). 4 folding engraved maps. 1 text illus. modern half calf (plates offset, foxing to first 2 leaves & some plates – generally light but rather heavy on frontis. & 3 botanical plates). First Edition, First Issue (with pp. 768 & maps dated March 1823). The record of Franklin's first Arctic expedition, fraught with hardship and tragedy, constitutes one of the classics in the annals of travel literature. In all, the party travelled 5,500 miles overland and with the aid of canoes, exploring the territory from York Factory to the mouth of the Coppermine River on Coronation Gulf, east along the Arctic coast as far as Point Turnagain, and back across the Barren Lands. Provisions were poor and scant, and on the return journey, many crew members died of cold and starvation; the young naval artist Robert Hood was murdered and another executed for the crime. The work also includes accounts by Richardson and Back (pp. 449-61, 477-90) of the last leg of the desperate journey across the Barren Lands, as well as a valuable appendix on the natural history of the region and scientific observations on the aurora borealis and the magnetic needle, by Richardson, Hood, Franklin and Sabine. Abbey, Travel, 635.Arctic Bib. 5194. Graff 1406. Lande 1181. National Maritime Museum I 827. Peel 80. Smith 3251. TPL 1248. Wagner-Camp 23:1 (calling for only 4 plates, in error). cfSabin 25624.. 1st Edition.