Journal of a voyage for the discovery of a North-West Passage

First Edition of the account of the first of Parry’s three attempts at the Northwest Passage. On this attempt he reached longitude 110° West, earning the reward of £5,000 that had been offered by Parliament for the first ship to reach that meridian, and was frozen in ice for ten months. He also discovered Melville Island and others of the Parry Islands, having first explored and named Barrow Strait, Prince Regent Inlet and Wellington Channel. “The immediate achievements of these voyages were the charting of hundreds of miles of coastline in the Canadian Arctic archipelago and the collecting of valuable data on Arctic natural history” (Hill). Parry returned a hero; John Murray paid him a thousand guineas for the rights to publish this account.

4to. Contemporary dark pink diced calf, rebacked to style with black morocco label, gilt bands. 6 engraved maps and charts (4 folding), 14 plates (of which 9 are aquatints), folding table, text diagrams. Errata slip pasted on verso of dedication leaf. With an ALs from Parry to Roger Kenison, Clerk to the Corporation of Guardians, Norwich, dated 23 June 1835, with conjugate address panel and seal, tipped in at front. Bookplate of Henry A. De Long on front pastedown. Slight wear to board edges, frontispiece chart rather clumsily folded, very occasional spotting and offsetting, withal a very good copy.