Matabele Land and the Victoria Falls by Oates, Frank; C. G. Oates - 1881: A Naturalist's Wanderings in the Interior of South Africa; from the Letters & Journals of the Late Frank Oates,

Matabele Land and the Victoria Falls; A Naturalist's Wanderings in the Interior of South Africa; from the Letters & Journals of the Late Frank Oates, Oates, Frank; C. G. Oates; Published by London, C. Kegan Paul & Co., 1881, First edition. Inscribed and dated (September 1881) by Editor. xliii + 383 + 32 pages of publisher's catalogue, frontispiece portrait; appendices, and Index. Includes six colored chromolithographic plates; thirty-eight in- text woodcuts by Pearson; ten natural history lithographs including 2 of birds by Keulemansand (all hand colored except one); four unnumbered folding engraved maps by Edward Weller. Appendices: I. Ethnology by George Rolleston; II. Ornithology by R. B. Sharpe; III. Herpetology by Albert Günther; 338, IV, Entomology by J. O. Westwood; V. Botany by R. Allen Rolfe; VI. List of Makalaka Words and Phrases from F. Oates's Note-Books.

Olive green cloth boards with beveled edges; gilt titles and decorative gilt vignettes front, back and spine; black endpapers. Re-cased adding tissue hinges over original endpapers and a layer of new cloth under existing back strip which shows a 12cm loss of original material. Light rubbing to edges and light bubbling to front board. Small professional bookplate free endpaper "From the Lowther Collection". Binding is tight; plates are in fine condition. Pages are bright with occasional spotting mark and a few shadow areas where paper cut outs of African animals were laid in. Maps have some foxing marks and the rear map has 3 small closed tears outside of map's borders. A very nice copy of the scarce first edition.