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(ARCTIC.) Mackenzie, Alexander.
Voyages from Montreal, on the River St.
Laurence, through the Continent of North America, to the Frozen and Pacific
Oceans.
3 folding maps (the first with hand-colored routes), frontispiece portrait. [4], viii,
cxxxii, 412, [2] pages. 4to, modern
1
/
2
leather-look by Houthen Bindery; repaired closed
tears to first 2 leaves, some separations at folds and tape repairs to maps, errata leaf chipped
on fore-edge; with half-title; inked library stamps on maps stubs and several leaves, inked
withdrawal stamp on rear free endpaper.
London, 1801
[2,000/3,000]
FIRST EDITION
.
Mackenzie and his party completed the first voyage of exploration across North
America more than ten years in advance of Lewis and Clark. Having arrived at a fort on Lake
Athabasca, AB by standard trade routes, they departed westward in October 1792 and arrived at an
inlet of the Pacific Ocean at Bella Coola, BC in July 1793. Also includes Mackenzie’s journal of his
1789 expedition north from Athabasca to the Arctic Ocean. Prefaced by an extensive history of the
fur trade, the first ever published, which is generally attributed to the explorer’s cousin Roderick
Mackenzie. “The maps are the earliest of certain parts of Canada”—Lande 1317. Howes M133
(“b”); Sabin 43414; TPL 658.
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