PALLISER, JOHN | The Journals, Detailed Reports, and Observations relative to the Exploration, by Captain Palliser, of that portion of British North America... London: Printed by G.E. Eyre and W. Spottiswoode, for H.M. Stationery Office, 1863

PALLISER, JOHN

The Journals, Detailed Reports, and Observations relative to the Exploration, by Captain Palliser, of that portion of British North America... London: Printed by G.E. Eyre and W. Spottiswoode, for H.M. Stationery Office, 1863

Folio (13 x 8 1/4 in.). 9 pp. of geological profiles. Original wrappers; rebacked to style. Housed in a blue chemise and morocco backed box. 

The most extensive of the British Parliamentary blue books published as a record of this official expedition

John Palliser, a prominent Irish landowner, led this important expedition, the main published results of which were a series of four reports, of which the present is by far the most extensive. The present reports provided the first comprehensive and impartial observations to be published about the southern prairies and Rocky Mountains in what is now Canada.

George Gibbs, a Harvard graduate, was an ethnologist, linguist and acknowledged expert on the language and culture of the Indians of the Pacific Northwest. The lure of gold drew Gibbs to the west in 1848, where he was eventually appointed Collector of the Port of Astoria, Oregon Territory. He subsequently served on two of the most important of the US surveys: from 1853 to 1855 he worked as a geologist and ethnologist on the Isaac Stevens Pacific Railroad Survey of the 47th and 49th parallels. From 1857 to 1862, Gibbs served as geologist and interpreter on the Northwest Boundary Survey. He then moved to Washington, D.C., where, under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution, he undertook studies of Indian languages. The present work has been signed on the cover by Gibbs and has had two 'aide-memoire' notes added by him concerning an area where he had travelled and recorded the geology, and identifying the sections in the report which dealt with Native American languages.

REFERENCE:

Graff 3167; Lowther 208; Peel 238; Sabin 58331; Streeter 3728; Wagner-Camp 338:3; Wheat, Transmississippi West 5:36-7, 83-5

PROVENANCE:

George Gibbs (signature on upper wrapper, and final free endpaper, two inscriptions)