ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS: THE SECOND GRINNELL EXPEDITION IN SEARCH OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN, 1853, ’54, ’55. Illustrated by upwards of three hundred engravings, from sketches by the author. 2 Volumes

Childs & Peterson, 1856. First Edition. Cloth. Very Good/No Dust Jacket. 1st Edition: 464 and 467 pages, illustrated with plates, 3 maps/charts (2 folding), engravings on steel and wood from sketches by the author. Frontispiece portraits, title page vignettes, head- and tail-pieces. Brown end papers. Original dark brown cloth covers with gilt titling to spines. Previous owners bookplate Volume 1 front end paper, Philadelphia: Childs & Peterson title page both volumes. Additional title page Sheldon, Blakemore 1857, Volume 2. Some foxing mainly to page edges and tissue guards, more so to Volume 1. Covers worn, fraying, bumped. Account of the voyage to Smith Sound, and of the winter on the north-west coast of Greenland, with extensive notes on the flora and fauna. No one had yet sailed beyond its northern portals. Kane determined to do so. John P. Kennedy, secretary of the navy, gave enthusiastic personal support, and Henry Grinnell donated the brig Advance. Private subscription financed the enterprise.No trace of Franklin’s party was found by the expedition but the coasts of Kane Basin were charted and Kennedy Channel was discovered Meteorological, magnetic, astronomical, and tidal observations, botanical, glacial, and geological surveys, studies of animal and Eskimo life, established sound foundations for the scientific study of the Arctic.In August 1854 Hayes [the surgeon] and eight men, protesting the commander’s resolve to remain a second winter, announced their determination to hazard the journey to the South Greenland settlements. Kane, sanctioning the withdrawal, equipped them from limited supplies. In December they returned to the vessel, broken in body and morale. Kane became doctor, nurse, and cook to a shipful of bedridden men. With indomitable courage he planned and then executed their escape. The Advance, still frozen in, was abandoned May 20, 1855. With the loss of one man, the party, carrying the invalids, reached Upernivik, in eighty-three days, a retreat which stands in the annals of Arctic exploration as archetype of victory in defeat. This is the first USA edition. 2-volume set (complete). Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: Under 5 kilogram. Category: Arctic & Antarctic; 19th century; Exploration. Pictures of this item not already displayed here available upon request. Inventory No: 2376. . This book is extra heavy, and may involve extra shipping charges to some countries.