[Rarebooks] fa: [CALIFORNIA] - REPORTS OF EXPLORATIONS & SURVEYS 1856 - 77 PLATES & MAPS

[ArCh]

Auction ends Sunday, April 2. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

https://tinyurl.com/3y65p68b

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


[R. S. Williamson (ed.):] Reports of Explorations and Surveys, to Ascertain the Most Practicable and Economical Route for a Railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean... Volume V: (Report of Lieutenant R. S. Williamson, Corps of Topographical Engineers, upon the Routes in California to Connect with the Routes near the Thirty-fifth and Thirty-second Parallels). Washington: A. O. P. Nicholson, printer, 1856(-57). Large 4to (30 cm) in modern calf-backed marbled boards, spine lettered and decorated in gilt, new endpapers; [14], 43, [3], xvi, 370, [2], xiii, [2], 15, [7], 14 pp. With numerous in-text woodcuts, 30 colored views and maps, 38 black&white plates of fossils and botanical specimens, 8 geological sections (7 folding, some colored), and a colored folding geological map of California (complete).

The bulk of the volume (ca. 440 pp.) consists of an account of Williamson's explorations in Northern and Southern California, from Benicia near San Francisco Bay to San Diego, by way of the Central Valley and the Colorado Desert, along with a Geological Report of the same. The accompanying plates include an early view of Los Angeles, as well as views of Benicia, the Great Basin, Tejon Pass, a Mirage on the Colorado Desert, the Mission of San Diego, etc., etc. An appendix describes the fossils and botanical specimens collected. This volume, complete in itself, is one of twelve such volumes of Pacific Railroad surveys commissioned by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis and published from 1855-1861.

A generally bright, clean copy. Title-page with library ink-stamp (no other library markings), browning and edge-wear to the first two leaves, small light damp-stain to the upper fore-corner, mild general toning to the text, a few spots and stains, three plates a bit browned, otherwise very clean and sound, firmly bound in a fresh and attractive modern binding.