Item #31848 TRAVELS IN NORTH AMERICA IN THE YEARS 1841-2:. Charles Lyell.
TRAVELS IN NORTH AMERICA IN THE YEARS 1841-2:

TRAVELS IN NORTH AMERICA IN THE YEARS 1841-2: WITH GEOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE UNITED STATES, CANADA AND NOVA SCOTIA.

New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1845. First American edition. Two volumes in one. 8vo., vi, iv-vii, 251 pp.; vi, 231 pp., (10) pp. of adverts, with a hand colored folding map and 6 plates, some folding, many hand colored. Bound in the publisher's brown cloth with the gilt title on the spine, which is slightly rubbed on the covers. The folding map and one folding plate have edge wear where the plates extended past the rest of the text block; otherwise, they are in fine condition. Previous owner's 1845 signature on a front end paper. A bright copy in near fine condition. Item #31848

Sir Charles Lyel (1797 - 1875) came to America in 1841, to study geology and lecture on the topic. While researching for this book, his trips into the field included Canada, Richmond, Norfolk, the Dismal Swamp, Charleston, Augusta, and west to Cincinnati. The resulting two volume book, with some 90 pages devoted to his travels in the South, is considered one of the most accurate of his time. Among the topics that interested him in the South were geology, soil erosion, steamboats, morality, social classes, and Southern customs and institutions. He saw slavery as a matter of race relations as well as servitude. Howes L-575; Sabin 42761.

Price: $650.00

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