Geological Survey of California. Geology. Volume I. Report of Progress and Synopsis of the Field-Work, From 1860 to 1864.
Philadelphia: Published by Authority of the Legislature of California (Caxton Press of Sherman and Co.), 1865. xxvii, 498 pp. Illus. with 9 plates and 81 further wood engravings in text. Sm. 4to. Later full sprinkled tan calf, five raised bands, red morocco lettering pieces, gilt title and rules, marble endpapers. First edition. A very good or better copy, front board scuffed at bottom edge, faint scattered foxing, bookplate on front pastedown. Sabin 10007. Farquhar 6. Item #40273
The second of the survey's reports. "It contains the first extensive description of the High Sierra to be published, and establishes the definition, 'that portion of this great chain which lies above the metalliferous belt just described, forming the crest of the range, and the water-shed between the streams flowing west to the Pacific Ocean and those which find their way eastward into the Great Basin, or some subordinate one, where they are lost by evaporation'. The woodcuts were derived from sketches made by Whitney and Hoffmann and by photographs from Yosemite by Watkins. The second volume, a rather slender affair, did not appear until 1882. Complete with all plates, with the frontispiece labeled plate VII. Provenance: From the library of the great collector of exploration literature and western American, Kenneth E. Hill, with his bookplate.
Price: $1,250.00