Exploration Of The Colorado River Of The West And Its Tributaries. Explored In 1869, 1870, 1871, And 1872, Under The Direction Of The Secretary Of The Smithsonian Institution Powell, John Wesley Western Exploration

291pp. Quarto [30 cm.] Contemporary Congressional binding in leather, with a hubbed spine, and a leather spine label. The backstrip is sunned, and there are tide marks in the margins of roughly half of the pages, not affecting the text, and often quite faint. Contains seventy-eight black and white illustrations of Powell's epic adventure down the then unknown Colorado and Green Rivers. ***Figures 70 and 71 are absent. With the two maps at the rear (in a detached envelope), in very good condition, with light foxing (the majority only visible on the reverse). Powell's 1869 exploration was the first documented expedition to successfully navigate the perilous rapids of the Colorado River through the uncharted Grand Canyon. The expedition set off in 1869 with ten men and four boats under the direction of one-armed Civil War veteran John Wesley Powell. After three months and nearly 1,000 miles, only five of the original party emerged from the depths of the canyon. Their historic journey mapped the last wild, untamed river of the American West and named the last unknown regions of American geography. The Henry Mountains and the Dirty Devil River were until the Powell expedition the last nameless mountain range and river in the continental U.S. Carl Wheat writes, with reference to this work, in "Mapping the Transmississippi West, 1850-1861," "As a narrative of adventure, this book of 1875 is one of the most justly celebrated documents in the literature of exploration." Howes P525. Farquhar 42a. Wheat 1261. Graff 3336. Sabin 64753.