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RAE, John (1813-1893). Narrative of an Expedition to the Shores of the Arctic Sea in 1846 and 1847. London: T. &W. Boone, 1850. 8vo. Illustrated with 2 color folding maps by John Arrowsmith. viii, [1]-[248], [8, ads] pp. Publisher's full green cloth, boards and spines paneled in blind, spine lettered in gilt, later yellow coated endleaves (recased with later endleaves, spine and board edges sunned and worn, some bumping to corners, light soiling to boards, text toned, front hinge starting, most pages unopened, a tear to first map near the stub). Very good. With the armorial bookplate of Giles Stephen Holland, Earl of Ilchester (British Peer and philanthropist). THE RARE FIRST EDITION. "The purpose of the expedition, sent out by the Hudson's Bay Co., was to explore and map the Arctic coast of Canada from Repulse Bay west to Dease and Simpson's farthest exploration eastward... or if Boothia Felix proved to be a peninsula, to trace the coast north to the place surveyed by John and James Ross, 1829-32. The narrative gives an account of the author's boat journey north from Churchill along the west coast of Hudson Bay to Repulse Bay, portage across Rae Isthmus and exploration of southern Committee Bay; the wintering at Repulse Bay, the spring journeys tracing the shores northwestward around Committee Bay, Simpson Peninsula, Pelly Bay and its islands, to the James Ross... Peninsula..., and northeastward along Melville Peninsula to Cape Crozier" (Arctic Bibliography). Arctic Bibliography 14097. Sabin 67428.