[Original Cloth] Letters from the Canary Islands

Boston: George W. Light, Lyceum Press, 3 Cornhill, 1834. Original Cloth. Near Fine+. Scarce First Edition (rare both in commerce and in institutional collections) of this account of the Canary Islands by the nineteenth-century Boston naturalist. Crown 8vo (186 x 111mm): 140pp, with tissue-guarded frontispiece ("Peak of Tenerife from Ycod del Alto"), full-page map of the Madeira and Canary islands, two woodcut vignettes, and several tables. Original floral-patterned forest-green cloth, red leather lettering piece gilt. Rear blanks largely torn away and now skillfully replaced with matching period end sheets, binding lightly rubbed, one page very skillfully mended (by careful sewing!), but a superb survival, with pages and plates virtually pristine. American Imprints 23586. Not in Smith (American Travelers Abroad). Browne, a polymath who wrote on a variety of scientific subjects, traveled to the Canary Islands 100 kilometers west of Morocco for several months in 1833 to explore the archipelago's geology and mineralogy, botany, zoology, mollusca and shells, meteorology, and social conditions, and report his findings to a group of Boston sponsors. His trip centered on Tenerife, the largest and most populous island, and included three ascents of Mount Teide, the highest peak in Spain and third tallest volcano in the world. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).