Western wanderings: A record of travel in the evening land. By J. W. Boddam-Whetham. Illustrated. London: Richard Bentley and Son, Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty, 1874. 22 x 14 cm (octavo), pp. [i-vii] viii-xii [xiii-xiv] [1] 2-364, 12 inserted plates, title page printed in red and black, publisher's bevel-edged decorated blue cloth, front and spine panels stamped in black and gold, rear panel stamped in blind, top and fore edges untrimmed, brown coated endpapers. First edition. Boddam-Whetham (1843-1918), British soldier (formerly of the 73d Foot), sportsman and world traveler, wrote several other books about his travels: Pearls of the Pacific (1876), Across Central America (1877) and Roraima and British Guiana: with a glance at Bermuda, the West Indies, and the Spanish Main (1879), as well as The boundary between British Guiana and Venezuela (n.d., circa 1879-1880). He traveled by train across the America to Salt Lake City and, after a short stay there, traveled on to Stockton, California, where he undertook the then arduous trip to Yosemite by way of the Calaveras and Mariposa big tree groves. A well-read, bigoted but keen observer, his narrative is of interest for its descriptions of hotel keeper J. M. Hutchings and John C. Smith and his impressive Yosemite Cosmopolitan which commenced operation in 1871, and for his suggestions for improvements needed in Yosemite Valley. The travel narrative of the trip from Stockton to San Francisco by way of Yosemite comprises pages 103-144. Two of the plates illustrate the big tree groves, a third is a view of Yosemite Valley from Union Point. Boddam-Whetham apparently lived for a period in Australia and died in 1918 in America (in Kentucky). Norris Catalogue 353. Owner's signature dated 1889 on the half title page. Cloth worn at spine ends and corner tips, spine panel a bit darkened, front panel shows some scuffs and scratches, last leaf of text and rear free endpaper foxed, inner rear hinge partially cracked, a good copy. (#157244).
No statement of printing.