Beschreibung:

DARWIN, CHARLES, Captains ROBERT FITZROY and PHILIP PARKER KING. Narrative of the Surveying Voayges of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle, between the years 1826 and 1836, describing their Examination of the Southern Shores of South America, and the Beagle's Circumnavigation of the Globe. London: Henry Colburn 1839. 4 vols. (vols. 1-3 and Appendix to vol. 2), 8vo, 234 x 146 mm. (9 1/4 x 5 3/4 in.), original blind-stamped bead-grained blue cloth, spines gilt-lettered, Freeman variant "a", almost entirely unopened, very slight wear to corners and extremities of spines, spines a bit faded, faint offsetting to a couple of maps, very light marginal foxing to a few leaves in vol. 3 . FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE of vol. 3, DARWIN'S FIRST PUBLISHED BOOK, half-titles, fly-titles, 56 plates, charts and maps, comprising 47 etched plates after P. P. King, A. Earle, C. Martens, R. Fitzroy and others by T. Landseer, S. Bull, T. A. Prior and others, and 9 folding engraved maps (8 loose in pockets, one bound in, Strait of Magellan map tinted in blue wash) by J. Gardner and J. and C. Walker A VERY GOOD COPY of the official record of the voyages of the Adventure and the Beagle . "Volume one contains Captain King's account of the first expedition which surveyed the coasts of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego... The remaining volumes describe the second voyage of the Beagle ... Volume three is Darwin's account of the voyage, which is one of the most interesting records of natural history exploration ever written and is one of the most important, for it was on this voyage that Darwin prepared for his lifework, ultimately leading to The Origin of Species ." (Hill). "Frequent, often extensive references to birds occur in the informally written narrative text, many of these being original observations of considerable interest" (Ellis/Mengel). Ellis/Mengel 624; Freeman 10; Hill, I, pp. 104-5; Sabin 37826. Provenance : John Ewart Davies Dr. Evan Morton Evans (1870-1955) Daniel Webster Evans (1907-1966). (4)