AMUNDSEN, Roald (1872-1928). The Northwest Passage. Being the Record of a Voyage of Exploration of the Ship “Gjöa” 1903-1907. London: Archibald Constable and Company, 1908.
2 volumes, 8vo. Engraved frontispieces, color folding map at rear of vol. I (lacking in vol. II), numerous plates from art and photographs. Original teal cloth stamped in red, green, and gilt, top edges gilt (evidence of bookplate removal on front pastedowns.
FIRST ENGLISH EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY INSCRIBED BY AMUNDSEN TO DR. LOUIS AGRICOLA BAUER. Bauer (1865-1932) was an American geophysicist, astronomer and magnetician who was appointed as the first director of the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism of the Carnegie Institution of Washington in 1904. In this position, he set up and carried out a large-scale program of two and a half decades to map the Earth’s magnetic field on land and at sea to provide accurate and up-to-date information. In 1918, Baur and his Department provided geomagnetic instruments and computational aids to Amundsen and The Maud Expedition (1918-1925) whose aim was to lodge in the pack ice above the Bering Strait and drifting across the Arctic Ocean, making meteorological, geophysical, and oceanographic observations along the way. Includes some penciled notations, presumably by Bauer, on paragraphs pertaining to magnetism. Arctic Bib. 402.