Description
London: John Murray, 1836. FIRST EDITION. Thick large octavo, with numerous illustrations and a folding map; original cloth (Sympathetically rebacked with the original spine mounted). A very good copy now Mylar protected and housed in a custom slipcase. ""A breathtaking recital of continuous adventure,"" George Back's expedition charted over 1200 miles of new territory and made important observations on the Aurora Borealis, all while working under appalling conditions (Mirsky, 122). The original purpose of the trek was to determine the fate of the second Ross expedition, which had set out in 1829 and was feared lost in the Arctic Ocean. Back, a veteran of the Franklin expeditions, volunteered to lead an overland expedition north along the Great Fish River, which extends from the Rae Strait to the Great Slave Lake in northern Canada, west of Hudson's Bay. Notified that Ross had returned safely to England, Back was directed to proceed with an expedition of discovery during which he found the river now named for him. ""As a literary composition this work may rank higher than any former volume produced by the northern expeditions"" (Edinburgh Review).
