Beschreibung:

DARWIN, CHARLES, Captains ROBERT FITZROY and PHILIP BARKER KING. Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle, between the years 1826 and 1836, describing their Examination of the Southern Shores of South America, and the Beagle's circumnavigation of the Globe. London: Henry Colburn, 1839. 4 vols. (vols. 1-3 and Appendix to vol. 2), 8vo, 226 x 144 mm., near-contemporary pale calf gilt, spines elaborately gilt tooled in panels with black and citron morocco labels, unidentified crest on sides, by CHARLES LEWIS g.e., some corners bumped, extremities slightly rubbed; maps foxed. FIRST EDITION, 47 steel-engraved plates and charts after P.P. King, A. Earle, C. Martens and others by T. Landseer, S. Bull, T.A. Prior and others, 9 folding engraved maps by J. Gardner and J. and C. Walker (8 of them backed with linen by the binder and bound at appropriate text throughout the work). Ellis/Mengel 624; Freeman 10; Hill pp. 104-05; Sabin 37826. The official record of the voyages of the Adventure and the Beagle. "Volume one contains Captain King's account of the first expedition which surveyed the coasts of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego... The remaining volumes describe the second voyage of the Beagle ... Volume three is Darwin's account of the voyage, which is one of the most interesting records of natural history exploration ever written and is one of the most important, for it was on this voyage that Darwin prepared for his lifework, ultimately leading to The Origin of Species. (Hill). Provenance Arthur Scott, Rothfield, bookplates. (4)