Burma by FERRARS, Max and Bertha - 1901

Adelaide: W.C. Cox, Printer, 1853. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Adelaide, W.C. Cox, Printer, 1853. Octavo, 46 pages. Relatively recent quarter morocco and buckram (by the Law Bindery, Melbourne); title leaf a little foxed, with minimal light scattered foxing to a few other leaves; an excellent copy with most interesting provenance (see below). The author, Clerk of the Executive Council of South Australia, was on board the vessel; this is his account of the first successful navigation of the Murray as far as Swan Hill by Captain Francis Cadell. Fellow-passenger James Allen also published his version of events. Captain William Randell and his paddle-steamer 'Mary Ann' left Goolwa at the Murray mouth ahead of Cadell and travelled much farther up the Murray, but Cadell overtook him en route and reached Swan Hill first. However, both men deservedly earned the bonus of 2000 pounds offered by the South Australian Government 'for each of the first two steamers to travel up the Murray as far as the… Read More

Babbage was 'engineer, scientist and explorer ... son of Charles Babbage, Cambridge professor of mathematics [and the first computer pioneer], and his wife Georgina, sister of W.W. Whitmore, a founder of South Australia.... In 1856 Babbage was sent north to search for gold as far as the Flinders Ranges. He found none, but discovered the MacDonnell River, Blanchewater and Mount Hopeful. He was the first to dispel the current idea of the impassability of the Lake Torrens "horseshoe" ... [In late 1857 he was] appointed leader of a northern expedition. Babbage left in February 1858 to explore the country between Lakes Torrens and Gairdner, and further to the north and west. His concept of exploration was based on thorough survey, mapping and examination of the country, ideals with which Francis Dutton, commissioner of crown lands, agreed in his instructions and early correspondence. With cumbrous and ingenious equipment Babbage carried out the first part, hampered by bad terrain and lack of water. But he… Read More

First English edition. Henry Colburn. London. 1828. 8vo. Title, xii, 428pp. Full marbled paper covered boards, 19th Century pseudo tree calf papier croisé pattern. Red spine label with gilt lettering and edge rules. Blue endpapers. Title page slightly toned. Lacking half-title. Rubbing to spine edges. A crisp copy of the rarer London first edition.
In making a Papier Croisé, the final step required that the paper be lifted up and carefully moved while still wet. This caused the characteristic knotting in the design.
John Ledyard (1751-1789) American explorer and adventurer. Ledyard accompanied Cook on the third and final voyage 1776-1780. Visiting the Sandwich Islands, Cape of Good Hope, the Prince Edward Islands off South Africa, the Kerguelen Islands, Tasmania, New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Tonga, Tahiti, and then Hawaii. It continued to the northwest coast of North America, making Ledyard perhaps the first U.S. citizen to touch its western coast, along the Aleutian islands and Alaska into the… Read More

Adelaide: Friends of the State Library of South Australia, 1996. Hardcover. Fine. Adelaide, Friends of the State Library of South Australia, 1996 (facsimile edition)/ 1863. Octavo, [vi], xvi, 408 pages plus 15 plates and a large folding map. Quarter leather and cloth, lettered in gilt and stamped in blind; a fine copy. 'John Davis was a member of the South Australian relief expedition, led by John McKinlay, to search for Burke and Wills. The expedition travelled to Cooper Creek and north almost to the Gulf of Carpentaria ... [They then] made for Port Denison (Bowen), some 960km away in Queensland.' Australiana Facsimile Editions Number 211. This is number 96 of only 99 numbered copies of the deluxe issue, from a total edition of 600 copies. The four-page introduction by Valmai Hankel is new to this edition.

Melbourne: Printed at the Herald Office, 1862. First Edition. Paperback. Very Good. Melbourne, Printed at the Herald Office, 1862. Duodecimo, 16 pages. Later quarter leather and papered boards (bound without the wrappers); title page a little foxed, with two early inkstamps lightly (and almost entirely) erased from it; a very good copy of a great rarity. 'The "Firefly", chartered by the Government of Victoria to convey stores, &c., for the exploration party sent in search of the ill-fated explorers, Burke and Wills, left Melbourne on July 29th, 1861, under orders to proceed to Brisbane, to take those who undertook to search for the missing men, and their horses. The explorers, horses and stores were to be landed at such point on the Albert River as Captain Norman of the colonial steamer "Victoria", might deem desirable. The "Firefly" encountered heavy weather and was eventually totally wrecked on Sir Charles Hardy's Island. This narrative is the captain's justification of his conduct' (Ferguson… Read More

Boston & New York: Houghton, Mifflin And Company, 1884. Second American Edition. Account of the American Jeannette Expedition of 1879-81, financed by J.G.Bennett of the New York Herald, and commanded by George W.De Long. The Jeannette sailed from San Francisco into Bering Sea and through Bering Strait, but was caught in the ice near Herald Island in November of 1879. For nineteen months she drifted northwest until the ship was finally crushed and sank northeast of the New Siberian Islands. Twenty-five of the thirty-three men who abandoned the ship reached the Lena Delta, but there De Long and eleven others perished. The search expeditions for the survivors are also related here. Arctic Bib. 3839. cfNational Maritime Museum I 965. Smith 2391. 2 Volumes. 8vo. pp. xii, 440; xii, [441]-911. 20 plates (1 tinted lithograph, 2 steel engraved portraits & 17 wood-engravings), 7 maps (3 folding – 1 in rear pocket, 2 double-page) & numerous text illus. & maps (several full-page). wood-engraved title… Read More

Adelaide: W.C. Cox, Printer, 1853. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Adelaide, W.C. Cox, Printer, 1853. Octavo, 46 pages. Relatively recent quarter morocco and buckram (by the Law Bindery, Melbourne); title leaf a little foxed, with minimal light scattered foxing to a few other leaves; an excellent copy with most interesting provenance (see below). The author, Clerk of the Executive Council of South Australia, was on board the vessel; this is his account of the first successful navigation of the Murray as far as Swan Hill by Captain Francis Cadell. Fellow-passenger James Allen also published his version of events. Captain William Randell and his paddle-steamer 'Mary Ann' left Goolwa at the Murray mouth ahead of Cadell and travelled much farther up the Murray, but Cadell overtook him en route and reached Swan Hill first. However, both men deservedly earned the bonus of 2000 pounds offered by the South Australian Government 'for each of the first two steamers to travel up the Murray as far as the… Read More

Babbage was 'engineer, scientist and explorer ... son of Charles Babbage, Cambridge professor of mathematics [and the first computer pioneer], and his wife Georgina, sister of W.W. Whitmore, a founder of South Australia.... In 1856 Babbage was sent north to search for gold as far as the Flinders Ranges. He found none, but discovered the MacDonnell River, Blanchewater and Mount Hopeful. He was the first to dispel the current idea of the impassability of the Lake Torrens "horseshoe" ... [In late 1857 he was] appointed leader of a northern expedition. Babbage left in February 1858 to explore the country between Lakes Torrens and Gairdner, and further to the north and west. His concept of exploration was based on thorough survey, mapping and examination of the country, ideals with which Francis Dutton, commissioner of crown lands, agreed in his instructions and early correspondence. With cumbrous and ingenious equipment Babbage carried out the first part, hampered by bad terrain and lack of water. But he… Read More

Adelaide: Friends of the State Library of South Australia, 1996. Hardcover. Fine. Adelaide, Friends of the State Library of South Australia, 1996 (facsimile edition)/ 1863. Octavo, [vi], xvi, 408 pages plus 15 plates and a large folding map. Quarter leather and cloth, lettered in gilt and stamped in blind; a fine copy. 'John Davis was a member of the South Australian relief expedition, led by John McKinlay, to search for Burke and Wills. The expedition travelled to Cooper Creek and north almost to the Gulf of Carpentaria ... [They then] made for Port Denison (Bowen), some 960km away in Queensland.' Australiana Facsimile Editions Number 211. This is number 96 of only 99 numbered copies of the deluxe issue, from a total edition of 600 copies. The four-page introduction by Valmai Hankel is new to this edition.

Melbourne: Printed at the Herald Office, 1862. First Edition. Paperback. Very Good. Melbourne, Printed at the Herald Office, 1862. Duodecimo, 16 pages. Later quarter leather and papered boards (bound without the wrappers); title page a little foxed, with two early inkstamps lightly (and almost entirely) erased from it; a very good copy of a great rarity. 'The "Firefly", chartered by the Government of Victoria to convey stores, &c., for the exploration party sent in search of the ill-fated explorers, Burke and Wills, left Melbourne on July 29th, 1861, under orders to proceed to Brisbane, to take those who undertook to search for the missing men, and their horses. The explorers, horses and stores were to be landed at such point on the Albert River as Captain Norman of the colonial steamer "Victoria", might deem desirable. The "Firefly" encountered heavy weather and was eventually totally wrecked on Sir Charles Hardy's Island. This narrative is the captain's justification of his conduct' (Ferguson… Read More