Description
Washington, three thick quarto volumes, with volume two in two volumes. The Senate edition. ***CONTENT: Volume I, part I: [General Report]: xvi, 258 p., 54 plates (12 colored), 4 maps/sections (3 folding), and 20 text woodcuts. Volume I, part II: [Geology and Palaeontology]: viii, 174 p., 21 plates of fossils, colored folding map, and 25 text woodcuts. Volume II, part I: [Botany, including Cactaceae]: [viii], [9]-270 p. and 61 botanical plates; [Cactaceae]: [ii], [3]-78 p. and 76 plates of cacti. Volume II, part II: [Zoology, including mammals, birds, reptiles and fishes]: [Mammals]: [vi], [ii], [ii], [3]-62 p. and 27 plates; [Birds]: [ii], [3]-32, [2] p. and 25 hand-colored plates; [Reptiles]: [ii], [3]-35, [1] p. and 41 plates; [Ichthyology]: [ii], [3]-85, [3], ii p. and 40 plates. This is one of the foundational works on the exploration and mapping of the U.S.-Mexican border. Major Emory was assigned to the Boundary Commission after the Mexican War by President Franklin Pierce. No sooner was the first survey completed, the Gadsden Purchase necessitated another survey, which is summarized in this work. Emory's report on the description of the region is accompanied by numerous scientific reports by John Torrey, James Hall, George Engelmann, T.A. Conrad, and others, as well as superb maps by Jekyll and Hall, and important views and plates after Schott, Weyss, and Vaudricourt. The commission undertook one of the first systematic studies of the topography, ethnology, and natural features of the area, and the boundary as surveyed has remained intact, with only minor alterations, for the last 164 years. These volumes contain more than 350 handsome plates, some lithographed in color, and including charts, maps, and profiles. This set contains the celebrated ""general map"", unfolding to 25 by 23 inches, showing the topography of the country from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean. Also present is the striking 24 by 22-inch geological map by James Hall and J.P. Lesley, the earliest colored geological map of the region. Of special note are 25 beautiful hand-colored plates of birds lithographed by Bowen & Company, included in Spencer Baird's report, ""Birds of the Boundary"", as well as handsome chromolithographic plates of Indians and scenery in volume one. ***CONDITION: This is a VG set bound in the original full tan leather; backstrips with maroon and black gilt-lettered calf title labels. The covers are clean and sound but are rubbed and mildly worn at the corners. Joints and hinges just starting in places, but strong; bindings very firm. The text pages are typically fresh, clean, and bright, cleaner than I have seen in other copies. The set is complete, save for plate 38 in volume three, a b/w plate of fishes, which was never bound in. Scattered foxing and offsetting on some plates, as usual, but the colored plates in volume one and the botanical and zoological plates in the other volumes are very clean. The 25 colored bird plates are pristine and...
![Report on the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey, made under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, [&c.]. [First editions]. 1857 and](https://r.kelkoo.com/resize.php?country=ca&merchantId=100567270&categoryId=5101&trackingId=96985762&width=auto&height=auto&image=https%3A%2F%2Fpictures.abebooks.com%2Finventory%2F32241027700.jpg&sign=fxKsbaJ.3GmmBTWgxyexc.Xo8v5EtAEYPMdxeBzsJ2M-)