Journal of a Voyage for the Discovery of a Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific; Performed in the years 1818-1820, in His Majesty's Ships Hecla and Griper… With an Appendix Containing the Scientific and Other Observations

London: John Murray, 1821. Second Edition. 4to (10 3/4x8 1/4), period marbled boards, rebacked with calf spine, spine label, illustrated with 14 aquatint or engraved plates, 6 charts & maps (4 of them folding), [8], xxix, [3], 310, [2], clxxix, [1], + [1] ad pp. Lacks errata slip present in the first edition, minor wear to old boards, light offset to some of the charts, old library label on front pastedown. A very nice clean copy. Handsome second edition of Parry's (1790-1855) first voyage seeking the Northwest Passage. This edition contains lots of information and illustrations about the journey that took place between May 1819 and October 1820. In Seeking a Northwest Passage the Hecla and Griper commanded by Parry "sailed up Baffin Bay, through the Lancaster Sound and the Barrow Strait to the south side of Melville Island where they wintered (Winter Harbour), and returned to England by the same route the next year. The expedition discovered and penetrated a short distance into Prince Regent's Inlet, discoverred Banks Island, and surveyed the south shores of Barrow Strait." Parry gives a lot of detail about all the discoveries, and how he prepared the ship for wintering. He even talks about scurvy and snow blindness, and in one of the appendices gives the reader a feel for the daily work routine. Arctic Bibliography 13145.