Superb artworks and photographs spanning three centuries document advances and watersheds in the field of natural science. The stories behind these images--of explorers, naturalists, artists and photographers--entwine into a fascinating study of human achievement and natural wonder. Among the many stories of adventure and great scientific endeavour are: Sir Hans Sloane's journey to Jamaica in 1687; James Cook's perilous Pacific crossings; and Darwin's historic voyage aboard HMS Beagle. Hand-picked from the vast Library of the Natural History Museum, London, the illustrations and artworks contained here form a rare collection, most of which have been presented for the first time in this stunning book.

New translation based completely on a surviving copy of Steller's 1743 manuscript that details the exploration of Alaska.

On his second expedition to the Pacific, in the years 1772-5, Captain James Cook made a voyage which, in the annals of exploration, is unsurpassed for grandeur of design and execution and for variety of experience. Cook traversed the Indian and Pacific Oceans in high latitudes, demonstrating that the supposed Southern continent could not extend north of 60°. Cook three times crossed the Antarctic Circle reaching his furthest south in 71° 10 ́, and he proved himself a master of navigation in ice. In the Pacific his discoveries or rediscoveries included the Tonga Islands, Easter Island, the Marquesas, the New Hebrides and New Caledonia, with the sub-antarctic islands of South Georgia and the South Sandwich group. Captain Furneaux, commanding the consort ship, examined the coasts of Tasmania. The written and graphic records left by Cook himself and by his officers, by the astronomer William Wales and the artist William Hodges, by the naturalists J.R. and George Forster are remarkable in their volume and vitality. The editor, Dr J.C. Beaglehole, here prints the full text of Cook’s own journal, constructed from two holograph MSS and several MS copies, and a great part of Wales’s journal. This facsimile edition reprints the edition of 1961 along with the Addenda and Corrigenda published in 1969. The illustrations originally in colour are reproduced in black-and-white, the fold-outs divided to fit on separate pages, and the volume split into two parts.

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Author's journal of 1818 expedition in search of Northwest Passage. Includes information on ice conditions, and descriptions of Polar Eskimos of Cape York region and of extensive stretches of red snow seen there. Also contains record of personnel, equipment, all orders, and work carried out.