Miscellanies. Barrington, Daines. Arctic

London: Printed by J. Nichols, sold by B. White [etc.], 1781. 1st edition. 4to. iv + viii + 573pp. 2 engraved portraits, folding map, 5 genealogical tables, 1 folding chart. Index at rear, and errata to verso of final leaf. Sumptuous full period-style calf by Courtland Benson with elaborate tooling on spine, contrasting label. Title page is ever so slightly dusty, all else very clean. A handsome copy. Contains Barrington's compilation of accounts of Northern exploration, including: "Tracts on the Possibility of Reaching the North Pole" (p1-124) which includes "A Short Account of Navigators who have Reached High Northern Altitudes,"; and the "Journal of a Voyage in 1775, to explore the [western] coast of America, Northward of California," by Don Francisco Antonio Maurelle ,who was second Pilot of the Fleet commanded by Don Juan Francisco de la Bodega, (p470-534), with an accompanying chart. This work also contains the first publication of Bodega y Quadra's Alaskan voyage, translated by Barrington from the original manuscript. Hill notes that "this is the only contemporary source in English of this important voyage fitted out by the Viceroy of Mexico to explore the northwest coast of America. Mourelle served as secretary to the Viceroy, Conde de Revillagigedo, and later wrote another work relating to the voyage of the frigate Princessa to the Pacific Ocean, in 1780-81. His account was used by Captain James Cook on his third voyage." The rest of the volume includes a biography of a young Mozart (with an engraved portrait), as well as other writings, including an account of natural history in America. [Lada-Mocarski 34]