Beschreibung von dem Lande Kamtschatka… [Edited by Jean-Benoît Scherer].

Frankfurt & Leipzig: Johann Georg Fleischer, 1774. First Edition. Scarce (Howes' 'b' rating). Steller, a German zoologist and botanist, was one of the scientists who participated in Vitus Bering's second expedition, 1734-43, in search of a northern sea route from Russia to North America. One of the largest exploratory expeditions ever undertaken, the Great Northern Expedition accomplished the mapping of most of the Arctic coast of Siberia, much of the northern and northeastern coast of Russia and the Kuril Islands, and discovered Alaska, the Aleutian Islands, the Commander Islands, and Bering Island. The present account of Kamchatka, and the manners and customs of its native inhabitants is based on Steller's wintering in 1740 on the east coast of the peninsula and includes passages relating to Alaska, where Steller and other crew members became the first Europeans to set foot in 1741 at Kayak Island. Steller also survived a winter on Bering Island, Alaska, where many of the crew including Bering died of scurvy, and is noted as the first European naturalist to describe a number of North American plants and animals, including Steller's jay, Steller's eider, Steller's sea eagle, Steller's sea lion, and Steller's sea cow, which would be hunted to extinction by Europeans within thirty years. Prefixed to the Steller's account is a life of Steller, presumably written by Jean-Benoît Scherer who edited the book, and appended is Gerhard Friedrich Müller's 'Geography and Makeup of Kamchatka compiled in 1737 in Jakutsk from different written and oral sources'. The last thirteen pages contain a vocabulary of the Koriak language. The engraved title vignette shows an active volcano called Kamchatka, several buildings, and a native in his baidar. The folding maps portray Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands while the folding plates depict Awatscha Bay, the ships St. Peter and St. Paul at anchor, Okhotsk harbour, the volcano, a settlement on the Kamchatkan coast, the interior of a Kamchatkan winter hut, cooking and fish-curing outside a Kamchatkan summer hut, three figurines of Kamchatkan gods, three portraits of a shaman, and the Kamchatkan method of starting a fire. Howes S-934 ('b'). Lada-Mocarski 21. Wickersham 5827. Not in Arctic Bib, JCB or Sabin although mentioned in note to Sabin 91218. 8vo. pp. 4 p.l., 24, [4], 384, 71, [1]. engraved title vignette, 2 folding engraved maps & 14 engravings on 13 folding sheets. several text illus. & musical notes in the text. woodcut ornaments & initials. A nice fresh copy in contemporary half calf (binding somewhat worn, slight damage to foot of spine, dampstaining to upper margin of some plates)