Journal d'un Voyage aux Mers Polaires Execute a la Recherche de Sir John Franklin en 1851 et 1852
Author: Bellot, Joseph Rene (1826-1853)
Year: 1854
Publisher: Perrotin, Libraire-Editeur
Place: Paris
Description:
lvi+414+[1] pages with frontispiece portrait, facsimile letter and folding map. Octavo (8 1/2" x 5") bound in half leather over marbled boards with red leather gilt spine label. (Arctic Bibliography, 1304) First edition.
Joseph René Bellot was a French Arctic explorer. In 1851 Bellot joined the Arctic expedition under the command of Captain William Kennedy in search of Sir John Franklin. (To harden himself for the Arctic winters, Bellot is said to have allowed himself only a thin mattress and one blanket on bare boards. When he met his first Inuit he endeared himself to them by constructing an artificial leg for a man who was disabled). In February 1852, Kennedy and Bellot set out from their winter quarters in Batty Bay on a dog sledging journey, travelling south to Brentford Bay, where they discovered Bellot Strait (a strait between Boothia Felix and Somerset Island. They then continued west to cross Prince of Wales Island to Ommanney Bay, returning to Batty Bay via Peel Sound and Cape Walker — a total trek of 1,800 km (1,100 mi) (Bellot's narrative of the expedition was published posthumously in 1854). Early in 1852 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, and in the same year accompanied the Franklin search expedition under Captain Edward Inglefield. As on the previous occasion, his intelligence, devotion to duty and courage won him wide admiration. While making a perilous journey with two comrades for the purpose of communicating with Sir Edward Belcher, he suddenly disappeared in an opening between the broken masses of ice in the Wellington Channel (August 1853).
Condition:
Wear and some soiling to extremities, large bookplate on front paste-down else a very good copy.
Year: 1854
Publisher: Perrotin, Libraire-Editeur
Place: Paris
Description:
lvi+414+[1] pages with frontispiece portrait, facsimile letter and folding map. Octavo (8 1/2" x 5") bound in half leather over marbled boards with red leather gilt spine label. (Arctic Bibliography, 1304) First edition.
Joseph René Bellot was a French Arctic explorer. In 1851 Bellot joined the Arctic expedition under the command of Captain William Kennedy in search of Sir John Franklin. (To harden himself for the Arctic winters, Bellot is said to have allowed himself only a thin mattress and one blanket on bare boards. When he met his first Inuit he endeared himself to them by constructing an artificial leg for a man who was disabled). In February 1852, Kennedy and Bellot set out from their winter quarters in Batty Bay on a dog sledging journey, travelling south to Brentford Bay, where they discovered Bellot Strait (a strait between Boothia Felix and Somerset Island. They then continued west to cross Prince of Wales Island to Ommanney Bay, returning to Batty Bay via Peel Sound and Cape Walker — a total trek of 1,800 km (1,100 mi) (Bellot's narrative of the expedition was published posthumously in 1854). Early in 1852 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, and in the same year accompanied the Franklin search expedition under Captain Edward Inglefield. As on the previous occasion, his intelligence, devotion to duty and courage won him wide admiration. While making a perilous journey with two comrades for the purpose of communicating with Sir Edward Belcher, he suddenly disappeared in an opening between the broken masses of ice in the Wellington Channel (August 1853).
Condition:
Wear and some soiling to extremities, large bookplate on front paste-down else a very good copy.
