FEATHERSTONHAUGH, George W. (1780-1866). A Canoe Voyage up the Minnay Sotor; With an Account of the Lead and Gold Deposits in Wisconsin; Of the Gold Region in the Cherokee country; And Sketches of Popular Manners... London: Richard Bentley, 1847.

2 volumes, 8vo (212 x 133 mm). 2 lithographed frontispieces; 2 lithographed folding maps. (Short tears to folds of maps just crossing the border, some minor toning and staining.) Original brown blind-stamped cloth, spine gilt-lettered, uncut (some wear, a few hinges starting, corners bumped). Provenance: Dudley Bell Priester (1923-2017), Mississippi River collector and bibliographer (bookplate, sold Bloomsbury, 20 November 2009, lot 76).

FIRST EDITION in which Featherstonhaugh, a geologist, writes in diary form, focusing his intense observation on the central states of the U. S. He focuses in particular on the Native Americans, about whom he contributes useful information. He began his journey at Washington, D.C., and traveled via Pittsburgh and Cleveland before arriving at Detroit. He navigated by canoe on Lake Huron and Lake Michigan to Mackinac and Green Bay, and from there via the Fox and Mississippi Rivers to Saint Anthony and Fort Snelling. The party negotiated the Minnesota River as far as Lake Traverse on the Dakota border, before returning to Galena, and St. Louis and then traveling through Tennessee, Georgia, and the Carolinas. Howes F-67; Sabin 23959.

Property from the Collection of Perry B. Hansen