The Yosemite guide-book: a description of the Yosemite Valley and the adjacent region of the Sierra Nevada, and of the big trees of California. New edition, revised and corrected. With four maps. [Sacramento]: Published by Authority of the Legislature, 1874. 14.5x10 cm (12mo), pp. [i-v] v-vii [viii], [9]-186, flyleaves at front and rear, 3 maps inserted in text, 2 folded, 1 in rear pocket (folded), original pictorial dark blue cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold, rear panel stamped in blind, brown coated endpapers, all edges gilt. Third edition, first printing. At head of title: "Geological Survey of California. / J. D. Whitney, State Geologist." Printer's imprint on title leaf verso: "University Press: Welch, Bigelow, & Co., / Cambridge." Printer's imprint on page 186: "Cambridge: Electrotyped and Printed by Welch, Bigelow, & Co." The last "pocket edition." The text of this edition is revised. Of the four maps prepared for this edition, one is new, "Sketch of the Hetch-Hetchy Valley (State Geolog.l Survey) 1874 Scale 2 inches to 1 1/2 Miles," and two are revised. The three other maps are: "Map of the Routes from San Francisco to the Yosemite Valley Prepared to Accompany the Pocket Edition of the Yosemite Guide Book. (State Geol. Survey.) 1872. Scale 18 Miles to 1 Inch," a detailed map printed in black, tan and blue, no printer's imprint, showing railroads, wagon roads and trails;" "Map of the Yosemite Valley Prepared to Accompany the Pocket Edition of the Yosemite Guide Book (State Geolog.l Survey) 1874. Scale of Miles. [scale bar below]," no printer's imprint; and in rear pocket, "Map of a Portion of the Sierra Nevada Adjacent to the Yosemite Valley from Surveys Made by Chs. F. Hoffmann and J. T. Gardner, 1863-1867. Scale 3 Miles to 1 Inch," no printer's imprint. The most influential publications of the California Geological Survey were the series of Yosemite guidebooks published between 1869 and 1874. These publications were intended to serve as tourist guides to the Yosemite region and various groves of giant sequoia. The first pocket edition, containing two small folding maps but no illustrations, was issued in 1871. However, it was Whitney's expressed intent to improve successive editions to provide "something more solid than can be got from the ordinary guide-books and works of travel, which are chiefly devoted to scraps of personal adventure." To expand descriptions and to provide current information, additional field work was performed in the Yosemite back country between the Merced and Tuolumne rivers by Whitney, Hoffmann, and Craven in the summer of 1873. Whitney hoped to extend the scope of a new edition to "give more space to the description of other portions of the Sierra Nevada, making the work a kind of scientific guide to the whole chain." A new edition was published in 1874, but Whitney's intent was not realized. The maps were improved and information about the Yosemite region was revised and somewhat expanded, but much of the information on the high country south of Yosemite, based on the 1864 field work, was omitted. The series of Yosemite guidebooks influenced the literature on Yosemite which followed, becoming the frequent source of quotations in numerous other books about the region. The guidebooks contain information which is still useful and much of the historical material is of interest. "Although these guide-books are long out of date, they have a literary quality that preserves their value" was Francis P. Farquhar's apt appraisal in his essay "The Literature of the High Sierra," The Quarterly News-Letter of the Book Club of California, 2 (December 1934), 8. See Farquhar (1948), title 7. Currey and Kruska 61. Farquhar 7f. Touch of rubbing to spine ends and corner tips, a nearly fine copy. A lovely copy of an important edition of the guide-book. Scarce in nice condition. (#165760).
No statement of printing.