Travels In The Central Caucasus And Bashan Including Visits To Ararat And Tabreez And Ascents Of Kazbek And Elbruz Freshfield, Douglas Turkey, The Caucasus And Middle East

First edition. Original rust colored cloth, decorated in gilt and black with a vignette of a local tribesman to the front board. Large octavo, xvi plus 510 pages, with a color frontispiece, 3 full page plates, 2 panoramas, 3 folding maps and 16 woodcut illustrations in the text. Very good condition overall. Freshfield (1845-1934) was one of the most distinguished explorers and mountaineers of his time. Freshfield was President of the Royal Geographical Society and the Alpine Club. While still a schoolboy he had ascended Mont Blanc, and in the 1860s and 1870s made at least twenty first ascents, chiefly in the lesser-known Italian Alps. This book is an account of the exploration of the central Caucasus that Freshfield led in 1868, at a time when the region was largely unknown and dangerous. He made the first ascent of Mounts Kazbek (16546ft), Elbruz (18470ft), as well as several other peaks. After returning to the Caucasus in 1887, he later published 'The Exploration of the Caucasus' (1896).