Author: Marcy, R. B. and G. B. McClellan [Baird, S. F. and C. Girard]
Title: Exploration of the Red River of Louisiana in the year 1852 with reports on the natural history of the country and numerous illustrations.
Description: Washington, DC, A. O. P. Nicholson, 1854. 8vo (22.1 x 14.5 cm). xv, 286 pp., 63 nice lithographed plates (several tinted) of plants, animals (ten on snakes and amphibians), mammals, insects landscape views and one folded hand-coloured geological profile. Original blind-stamped brown cloth. Gilt title on the spine. = Rare early exploration on natural history and geology of this part of the southern US, including the early (may be first?) geological profile. This is the later House of Representatives edition. It includes nice views of the Gypsum Bluffs on Red River, Granite Boulders and the Ke-Che-Ah-Que-Ho-No of the Red River and 19 fine plates of plants (numbered I-XVII, XIX-XX; XVIII not published). Also included are the appendices on meteorology, geology (plate II not issued), palaeontology, fishes, shells, arachnides and botany by John Torrey. By far the most important section is Appendix F, Reptiles, by S. F. Baird and C. Girard. It contains the descriptions and illustrations of many new snakes, as well as other reptiles and amphibians. Girard also wrote the parts on Orthoptera, Myriapods, and arachnids, all with new species (illustrated). This should come with a separate portfolio with two maps, but it is absent as in most copies. Appendix H is a trilingual dictionnary English - Comanche - Witchita. Some foxing in the text and on some plates but mostly in the margins - the herpetological plates nearly clean. Sabin, 44512.

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