NATURAL HISTORY
NATURAL HISTORY
“The Yaks are Strong & Hardy” 
Gerard, Alexander. Account of Koonawur in the Himalaya,
etc. etc. etc. London: James Madden & Co., 1841. 8vo (23 cm, 9"). xiii, [3], 190, [2], [195]–308 (i.e.,
310), xxvi, [2 (adv.)] pp.; 1 fold. map.
Click the interior images for enlargements. Gerard's observations cover botany, linguistics, culture, and commerce, as well as geography. The area of his travels is depicted by an oversized, folding map of his own design.
• NSTC 2G5453; Howgego, II, G7. Contemporary brown cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title; rebacked and 95% of original spine reapplied, with the publisher's name at the foot of the spine chipped. Front pastedown and back of map each with institutional rubber-stamp (no other markings), front free endpaper with inked ownership inscription dated [18]49. Hinges (inside) reinforced. Last preface page with small inked annotation. Pages slightly age-toned; map with light offsetting and one short tear starting along fold, not touching image. (24291)
The Earthquake That Changed GuatemalaGonzález Bustillo, Juan. Extracto, ô Relacion methodica, y puntual de los autos de reconocimiento, practicado en virtud de commission del señor presidente de la Real Audiencia de este reino de Guatemala. Pueblo de Mixco [Guatemala]: Impreso en la oficina de A. Sanchez Cubillas, 1774. Folio (29.5 cm; 11.675"). [2], 86 pp. (without final leaf with one erratum) 
Single-click any image where the hand appears on
This document is one of the very few printed in the temporary capital of Mixco, a press having been salvaged from the ruins in the former capital. Thus, Mixco was the second city/town to have a press in Central America, and then, for only a short time—appoximately two years.
In addition to being important for its contents and in the realm of printing history, the González Bustillo report is uncommon: We trace only half a dozen copies in U.S. libraries.
• Medina, Guatemala, 384; Palau 105113; Sabin 27811. Modern full calf, very plain style. Without the final leaf with one erratum on it.
Travels through
Gran Colombia, 1823–24 Hamilton, John Potter. Travels through the interior provinces of Columbia. By Colonel J. P. Hamilton, Late Chief Commissioner from His Britannica Majesty to the Republic of Colombia. London: John Murray (Pr. by G. Woodfall), 1827. 8vo. 2 vols. I: Frontis., [2], 332, [1] pp.; 2 plts. II: Frontis., [1], 256 pp.; 3 plts., 1 map.
Click the interior images for enlargements. Illustrated with seven engraved plates and a folding engraved map by Edward Finden. The plates, probably taken from personal sketches of the author, render the landscape and people in fine detail. Four plates are of mountain passes and river crossings. The other three plates depict “cottages and natives at Hacienda of Mondomo,” a dramatic scene of mounted Indian lancers attacking Spanish troops, and another showing the lassoing of bulls. In the back of vol. II is a folding map of the Department of Cauca, “Dedicated to Sr. Dr. Marselino Perez Devalenca. By I. R. A.”
Provenance: Formerly a copy belonging to Indiana University Library.
• Palau 112117; Sabin 30023. Bound as above. Flex marks on joints, a couple of shallow scratches on front and back covers. Fold-mark across corners of two leaves. Pages clean, map and plates in excellent condition. Lilly Library duplicate, with small paper label affixed to bottom edge of rear pastedowns; a few library pencillings, but no library stamps. (24568)
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Fossil Flora — 65 PlatesHayden, Ferdinand Vandeveer. Report of the United States Geological Survey of the territories. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1878. 4to (30.4 cm,
11.9"). xv, [3], 366 pp.; 65 plts. 
• Publisher’s cloth, covers framed in blind, spine with gilt-stamped title; front cover with discoloration to upper edge and small bump to outer edge, cloth rubbed along edges and joints, spine scuffed. Front pastedown institutionally rubber-stamped. Pages and plates clean, and the large volume quite solid.
Missionary Travel to
the Arctic — An Account of LaplandHögström, Pehr. M. Petr. Höchströms Missionarii und Pastoris in Galliwarn Beschreibung von dem unter Schwedischer Crone gehörigen Lappland, in sich fassend einen kurtzen Ünterricht sowohl von des Landes Beschaffenheit überhaupt, als aüch von dem Züstande der Einwöhner, ihrer Haushaltung, Sitten, Manieren, Lebensart, Lastern ünd Aberglaüben .... Stockholm & Leipzig : Beij Johann Friedrich Lochner, 1748. 8vo (17.7 cm, 7"). Engr. t.-p. (double-page), 328 pp.; 1 fold. map, 1 fold. plt.
Printed in black-letter, the volume is illustrated with an oversized, folding map of Lapland and a folding plate of Laplanders at work and at play, in addition to the double-page engraved title.
Scarce: Searches of OCLC and RLIN show only two U.S. locations.
Provenance: Front pastedown with bookplate of a 19th-century collector; front fly-leaf with inked ownership inscription dated 1770; title-page with early inscription of J.H. Gronau.
• Not in Howgego, Encyclopedia of Exploration. Contemporary half calf over paper-covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments; leather worn, paper discolored, one spine compartment with dark adhesion now chipping. All edges marbled. First text page with inked numeral in lower margin. Free endpapers excised, with offsetting from turn-ins to edges of front and back fly-leaves; back fly-leaf with corners torn away. Engraved title-page, map, and plate browned.
An Englishwoman's Translation of
This German Landmark Humboldt, Alexander von. Cosmos: A sketch of a physical description of the universe. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1849–58. 8vo (18.8 cm, 7.4"). 5 vols. I: Frontis., xvii, [1], ix, [1], 369, [3], 18, 40 (adv.) pp. II: xxi, 370–742, 16 pp. III: [6], 289, [1], 8, 32 (adv.)
pp. IV: xv, [1], 291–601, [1], 7, [1], 32 (adv.) pp. V: viii, 500 pp.
Click the interior image for an enlargement. Elise C. Otté (with assistance from Benjamin Horatio Paul and William Sweetland Dallas for vols. 4 and 5, respectively) and first published in 1845 through 1848, with this edition being part of the “Bohn's Scientific
Library” series. The work was written by German naturalist, explorer, and diplomat Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt, famed for his scientific observations of Latin America as well as for the present, groundbreaking overview of natural science. Humboldt's exploits and writings served as an inspiration for countless other scientists (including Charles Darwin), and his encyclopedic approach to describing our world as a whole, in terms of all of its natural phenomena, helped launch science's ongoing search for the unifying principles of the universe.
This translation caused a bit of controversy: Tipped in at the front of vol. I is a printed rebuttal by Bohn of accusations made by the publisher of a rival translation by Mrs. Sabine, regarding the accuracy of Otté's work — which Bohn defends, of course.
• NSTC 2H36378; Sparrow, Milestones of Science, 106 (first ed.). Publisher's embossed red cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title and series identification; spines sunned with heads and feet pulled (in one instance chipped), corners bumped, cloth with spots of minor discoloration; vol. V with binding darkened overall and cloth starting at heads of joints. Married set: Vols. I–IV each with institutional bookplate on front pastedown; vol. V from another set, with a different bookplate. Vols. I–IV institutionally rubber-stamped on front free endpapers and title-pages. Many signatures unopened in vols. I–IV; sewing starting to loosen in vol. V. (23913)
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One of ThoseWonderfully AMBITIOUS!
18th-Century “Sketches”Kames,
Henry Home, Lord. Sketches
of the history of man. Edinburgh: W. Creech, W. Strahan, & T. Cadell,
1774. 4to (27.5 cm, 10.9"). 2 vols. I: xii, 519, [1 (blank)] pp. II: [4], 507,
[1 (blank)] pp. 
Click the images for enlargements. Provenance: Front pastedown with bookplate “De la bibliotheque de F. Freudenreich.”
• ESTC T48434; Alston, III, 308; Goldsmiths’-Kress 11089; Sabin 32702. Contemporary speckled calf, neatly rebacked preserving original gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels, spines with gilt-stamped thistle decorations; edges and corners rubbed, sides showing small scrapes and discolorations. Residue on pastedowns from sometime removal of bookplates. Pages age-toned, with occasional small spots, and offsetting from binding to in margins of first and last few leaves. All edges speckled.
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Heritage ClubTwo-Volume Edition Lewis, Meriwether, & William Clark. The journals of the expedition under the command of Capts. Lewis and Clark... New York: Heritage Press, (copyright 1962). 8vo. 2 vols. I: xlv, [1], 231, [1] pp.; 1 map, illus. II: xviii, 233–547, [1] pp.; illus.
Click the interior images for enlargements. 
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American Primer — American Woodcuts M'Carty's American primer. Being a selection of words the most easy of pronunciation. Philadelphia: M'Carty & Davis (stereotyped by J. Howe), (copyright 1828). 12mo (14.3 cm, 5.6"). 36 pp.; illus.
12 half-page wood engravings of animals and birds done by Gilbert.
• Shoemaker 33941; Rosenbach, Early American Children's Books, 714. Publisher's printed light blue paper wrappers, split and chipped along spine, otherwise crisp and clean. Pages with light age-toning and offsetting. (24569)
Get
Cured or
Get Clean
YOU
Choose: “Druggs”
or SoapPomet, Pierre. A compleat history of druggs, written in French by Monsieur Pomet ... To which is added, what is further observable on the same subject, from Mess. Lemery and Tournefort ... Illustrated with above four hundred copper cutts ... Done into English from the originals. London: Pr. for R. & J. Bonwicke, and R. Wilkin; John Walthoe & Tho. Ward,, 1725. 4to (22.5 cm; 9"). xii, 419, [1] pp., [4] ff.; 86 plts.
86 etched plates, mostly with four
specimens per plate; but there are also full-page images of a silk factory, a fishery, and of “negro's [sic] making Roucou.” Other plates are of unicorns, whales, rhinos, elephants. 
Americana content is noteworthy, with discussion of cacao, chocolate, “guinea pepper,” “long American pepper,” tobacco, and so on. Two surprising sections are devoted to glass manufacture and achieving color in glass, and soap making. 
• Wellcome Catalogue, IV, 412; Graesse, Trésor de Livres rares, V, 398; Alden & Landis 725/158; not in Sabin; ESTC T111989; Pritzel 7258n; Junersforgg & Hasenkamp, Coffee, 1177– 1179. Recent full calf antique-style with gilt concentric panels on covers and gilt corner devices on same; round spine with raised bands, each accented by gilt rules. Some plates closely trimmed at foremargin. A very pleasing copy. (21774)
A
PRB&M “FEATURED BOOK” —
A Book for All Seasons
Peattie, Donald Culross. An almanac for moderns. Washington: Pr. for the members of The Limited Editions Club, 1938. Quarto. [1 (blank)] f., [8 (2 blank)], 9–338, [2 (1 blank)] pp., illus.
• The Limited Editions Club offers this edition of An Almanac for Moderns—Donald Peattie's daily records of the flora, fauna, and constellations of an unnamed geographical place. In his introduction to the book, he writes, "[The Almanac was] not written . . . as an ordinary diary, even a Nature record of some particular year. The Almanac was conceived rather as the common experience of any year, with its impact of seasonal sight and sound, and its glimpses of the birds' ways and the slow self-robing and disrobing of the woods. Still more it is intended to convey the overtones of these events as they ring upon a modern ear with a scientific training."Asa Cheffetz illustrated the book with idyllic wood engravings of rural life. Lester Douglas designed the text using an intertype Egmont Medium; it was printed by Judd & Detweiler. The binding is full spring-green linen with the title stamped on the spine in gold; the tree design on the front cover is stamped in black and the signs of the zodiac, which circle around the tree, are stamped in gold.
Limited to 1500 copies, this edition is signed on the colophon page by Asa Cheffetz.
• Limited Editions Club, Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by The Limited Editions Club, 1929–1985, 100. A very good copy with the slipcase. A bookplate may once have been present inside front cover; the small gilt label of bookseller Philip Duchnes appears inside the back cover.
See also, perhaps, GARDENING — click here.
Scarce Early AmericanChildren's Science Book Phillips, Richard. A view of the earth, containing an account of its internal structure; its caves and subterranean passages; its mountains, its rivers and cataracts. Together with a brief view of the universe. To which are added, problems on the globes, directions for drawing maps, and tables of latitudes and longitudes ... by the Rev. J. Goldsmith [pseud. of Phillips]. Philadelphia: Pr. by J. Bouvier for Johnson & Warner, 1810. 12mo. 51 pp.; 1 fold-out plt., 2 plts, tables.
Click the interior image for an enlargement. Uncommon: Searches of Shaw and Shoemaker, OCLC, and NUC Pre-1956 locate fewer than ten copies in U.S. libraries.
• Shaw & Shoemaker 21081 & 21082 (collated differently); Rosenbach, Children's, 425; out of scope for Welch. Good+. Sewn, in publisher's printed salmon wrappers; spine chipped, wrappers lightly soiled and tattered. Owner's signature in upper area of front cover. Date along inner area of same. Corners bumped; pages with occasional spots of foxing. (1192)
Raising & Studying “Fairy Creatures” Robertson-Miller, Ellen. Butterfly and moth book. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1912. 8vo. Frontis., xviii, [2], 249, [1] pp.; illus.
Click the interior images for enlargements. “Personal” this is, both in construction and in style; it is written in accessible language and with wonder given full rein. But it is real science. (Robertson-Miller published in agricultural and other scientific journals.)
Binding: Publisher's sage green cloth, front cover and spine stamped in olive, black, and pale green.
• Bound as above with lower edge of front cover darkened, corners and spine extremities lightly rubbed. Front hinge slightly tender. Pages clean. (22214)
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