SEA MONSTERS, MERMAIDS, AND THE KRAKEN PONTOPPIDAN, Erich.

The Natural History of Norway containing a particular and accurate Account of the Temperature of the Air, the different Soils, Waters, Vegetables, Metals, Minerals, Stones, Beasts, Birds, and Fishes; together with the Dispositions, Customs, and Manner of Living of the Inhabitants … In two Parts … Illustrated with Copper Plates, and a general Map of Norway.

First English edition, a nice copy likely bound by the publisher Andreas Linde, of this remarkable account of Norway’s natural history by the Danish theologian and antiquary Pontoppidan (1698–1764), whose accounts of sea monsters influenced both Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick and Jules Verne’s Twenty thousand Leagues under the Seas.