JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE FROM THE ATLANTIC TO THE PACIFIC PERFORMED IN THE YEARS 1819-20, IN HIS MAJESTY'S SHIPS HECLA AND GRIPER, UNDER THE ORDERS OF WILLIAM EDWARD PARRY, R.N., F.R.S., AND COMMANDER OF THE EXPEDITION; WITH AN APPENDIX, CONTAINING THE SCIENTIFIC AND OTHER OBSERVATIONS

London, England: John Murray, 1821. First Edition. Leather-bound. Good. Quarto. Full speckled calf with gilt floral chain border to both boards, Rebacked in sympathetic calf. Four raised bands (five compartments) contrasting red spine label, and gilt floral designs within compartments. Penciled note reads "First Edition", but to be safe, assuming second edition, since count of plates EXCEEDS those listed in Hill. All 20 illustrations present: six charts, four of them folding, nine engravings (some with original tissues, some detached but present) by W. Westfall from sketches by Lieuts. Frederick William Beechey, Henry Parkyns Hoppner, and several other pages of strip surveys of coastlines encountered while sailing past. A number of in-text illustrations present, as well.

Indigo blue and grey stone marbled endpapers. Bookplate residue to front pastedown. Some toning, light foxing and offset throughout, but overall, tight, clean and bright. Nice copy.

Important early arctic expedition. Published by the authority of the Lord Commissioners of the Admiralty. 4 p. l., xxix, [2], 310, [2], clxxix, [1] p. front. (fold. chart), illus., Printed by William Clowes, Northumberland-court. Begins with Introduction which outlines scientific instruments aboard, personnel and their roles, and an " Explanation of Technical Terms Made Use of in the Course of the Following Narrative". This, followed by dedication to Lord Viscount Melville,the "Official Instructions, by the Commissioners for executing the Office of Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, &c. &c. " .With a 10-part Appendix, containing the Scientific and other Observations (Going of the Chronometers, Lunar Observations, Latitudes and Longitudes by Chronometers, Observations on the Variation;and on the Magnetic Force, Table and Abstract of Days' Works, Tide Tables, "An Account of the Experiments to Determine the Acceleration of the Pendulum in Different Latitudes", and "Remarks on the State of Health and Disease on Board theHecla and Griper". "After being frozen in for ten months, the. ships were released on August 10, 1820, but the ice prevented further progress westward and Parry returned to England. ..Parry made two further attempts at the North-west Passage. 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. In 1827 Parry tried to reach the North Pole, and he set a new northern record which stood until l876..." (Hill, p.225-6)

Parry's care for his men, his solution of many of the problems of wintering in the ice, and his meticulous scientific work set a pattern of Arctic exploration for a generation. Many of his young officers (notably James Clark Ross) went on to be famous explorers themselves.(ODNB).