Feb 04, 2016 - Sale 2404

Sale 2404 - Lot 41

Price Realized: $ 812
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,200 - $ 1,800
(ARCTIC.) Back, George. Narrative of an Expedition in H.M.S. Terror . . . to Geographical Discovery on the Arctic Shores. vii, 456 pages. Folding map, 12 tinted lithograph plates. 8vo, later 1/2 calf, minor wear, small stain on front board; later owners' signatures on flyleaf, Edinger bookplate. London, 1838

Additional Details

first edition. In 1836-37, on the second Arctic expedition under his own command (and his fifth and final Arctic voyage), Back was charged with exploring and charting the western end of Fury and Hecla Strait and Turnagain Point. But his ship the HMS Terror never made it, becoming stuck in the ice near Frozen Strait and nearly wrecking off Southampton Island. "Back's narrative contains principally detailed descriptions of the ice floe, its changes and its effects on the ship, together with brief notes on those sections of the Southampton Island coast to which short visits were made"--Arctic Bibliography 850. Books on Ice 3.3; Hill 44; Sabin 2617; TPL 2033.