A military campaign ‘not entirely useless to science’
BLANFORD, William Thomas.
Observations on the geology and zoology of Abyssinia, made during the progress of the British expedition to that country in 1867-68.
London, Macmillan and Co., 1870.
8vo, pp. xii, 487, [1 (colophon)]; folding coloured frontispiece, 1 folding coloured geological map, 8 lithograph plates of which 6 coloured, 4 full-page engravings, and 9 further illustrations in text; some browning, particularly in the margins, some light spotting, foxing to maps, some damp staining to upper margin; overall a good copy in original blind panelled green cloth by Burn & Co. (label to rear pastedown), with gilt lettering and device to spine, brown endpapers; some wear to joints, spine ends, corners and edges, spine slightly discoloured; ‘From the Publishers’ inscribed to half-title, label of the Crampton Bookshop, Dublin, to front pastedown.
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Observations on the geology and zoology of Abyssinia, made during the progress of the British expedition to that country in 1867-68.
First edition of the geologist and naturalist William Thomas Blanford’s study of Abyssinian flora and fauna, undertaken during Britain’s military expedition through the country in 1868 and supplemented by hand-coloured lithographic plates. Blanford, then known primarily for his geological work in India, travelled through Abyssinia as part, if a rather loose part, of the punitive expedition against Tewodros II of Ethiopia under the leadership of Robert Napier. This work, first published in 1870, is split into three parts: the first part records Blanford’s journey through Abyssinia as part of the expedition (although his interests remain strictly personal, geological, and zoological); the second part is devoted to Abyssinian geology, complete with an appendix describing new species of fossils discovered in the Antalo limestone; and the third part concerns Abyssinian zoology, containing entries on several hundred animal species which Blanford observed during his expedition. The six new bird species discovered by Blanford are depicted in beautiful hand-coloured lithographs by the Dutch avian illustrator John Gerrard Keulemans (1842-1912), while the impressive map is by Stanford’s Geological Establishment, London.
Anker 44; Casey Wood p. 243; Nissen ZBI 406; Zimmer p. 60.
