Reports of Exploration and Surveys, to Ascertain the Most Practicable and Economic Route for a Railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean… In 1853-4… Vol. III

4to, leather spine and tips with marbled boards, 36, Illustrations include 21 tinted/color lithographs, one folding diagram, two folding maps, and a couple of black and white plates, 36, [14], 136, 127, 175 pp. Binding with some wear at the spine and extremities, hinges cracked, some pages are a bit loose, plates all present, but probably not bound in correct order, folding maps have a few tears, some staining to front endpapers, but not into the balance of the text, plates and text show some aging, foxing and browning, but most plates resonably are clean. One of the great sources of information on the west, the Pacific Railroad Reports also contains some great illustrations. This installment (Vol. III) is no exception. Included are some interesting and colorful pictures of the Mojave Indians and their territory. This report contains intelligence on an expedition near the 35th parallel, which took the southern route due west to the Pacific Ocean from Fort Smith Kansas, that was conducted by Lieutenant A.W. Whipple and assisted by Lieutenant J.C. Ives. Ives would make his own mark on western expansion a few years later in his travels on the Colorado River. The substantial amount of information on various Indain tribes makes this installment an important one. Since many of these volumes are broken for the plates, they are getting somewhat scarce.