in Response to the Resolution of the House of Representatives of December 11, 1884.

By Ray, P.H. (Patrick Henry)

Washington: Government Printing Office. 1885. First Edition. 4to – 29.8cm; (iv), 695pp.; coloured frontispiece, folding map, twenty plates including several of Eskimos and two hand-coloured, of birds, numerous plans and in-text drawings. Index. Publishers black ruled cloth, title lettered in gilt on spine – spine slightly faded with titles legible but not bright, slight wear to extremities, a very good clean copy with original tissue guards in place, no prior ownership markings and no institutional markings.

The report of the expedition, under the command of First Lieutenant P.H. Ray during the years 1881-83 — as part of the Expeditions of the First International Polar Year, 1882-1883. The book contains seven parts and includes a narrative and results of studies in meteorology, ethnography, natural history, magnetism and tidal motion. The War department specified that “careful attention will be given to the collection of specimens of the animal, mineral and vegetable kingdoms.” A very detailed and very well-produced publication.

“The narrative of the International Polar Expedition 1882-1883. The expedition sailed from San Francisco July 18, 1881, spent August 21-25 at Plover Bay on Chukotsk Peninsula, and reached Cape Smythe, September 8. A scientific station was maintained at Uglaamie (Utkiavi) eleven and a half miles southwest of Point Barrow, … The narrative summarizes the sea voyages and land operations with notes on ground temperatures to depth of 35 feet and use of permafrost for refrigeration, describes the destruction of the whaler “North Star” by ice floes June 1882, includes diary of an exploration by sledge to a point about 100 miles southward of Uglaamie, describes dog sledges and their use, also methods of building snow houses.”—Arctic Bibliography 14292.

Provenance:  Bearing the private book plate of William Healey Dall, an American naturalist, a prominent malacologist, and one of the earliest scientific explorers of interior Alaska. Dall made substantial contributions to ornithology, vertebrate and invertebrate zoology, physical and cultural anthropology, oceanography and paleontology. In addition he carried out meteorological observations in Alaska for the Smithsonian Institution.

$750.00 -