LAING, JOHN. - WHALING.

An Account of a Voyage to Spitzbergen; containing a full Description of that Country, of the Zoology of the North, and of The Shetland Isles; with an Account of the Whale Fishery. With an Appendix, containing some importent Observations on the Variation of the Compass, &c. By a Gentleman of the Navy.

London, J. Mawman, 1815.

Later hcalf. Raised bands, titlelabel with gilt lettering. Small stamp on title-page and the first leaves. (4),171,(3) pp. Faint marginal brownspots, wide-margined copy. Some contemporary reviews from newspapers bound in. At end a catalogue, 7 pp. from the publisher Gale, Curtis, and Fenner.

First edition. Giving the results of the author's voyages in Greenland Sea as ship surgeon on whalers in 1806 and 1807. He describes the ice conditions, the walrus, seal, polar bear, reindeer, arctic fox and few of the birds near West Spitzbergen; also the whaling methods. (Arctic Bibliography, 9582).

Order-nr.: 53829