VOYAGES OF NICHOLAS BALL FROM 1838 TO 1853. A TABULATED FORM WITH NOTES. TOGETHER WITH A SUMMARY OF A TRIP TO EUROPE IN 1888. Boston, Mass. L. Barta & Co., Printers, 144 & 148 High Street, 1895. 24x16.2 cm, pp. [1-4] 5-38 [39-40: ads], inserted frontispiece (portrait of the author), illustrations in the text, original pictorial green cloth, front panel stamped in gold. First edition. "Pages 31 to 35 contain an 'Itemized Mining Record Kept by Nicholas Ball in 1850 and 1851.' The record's daily entries account for the pails of dirt shoveled and the value of the gold extracted. The volume also includes notes from a journal and a letter to his brother dated January 19, 1851, from Rattlesnake Bar on the North Fork of the American River" (Kurtz). "An unusually faithful account of the actual work done by placer miners, showing the exact cost and profit" (Norris). Nicholas Ball (1828-1896), a native of Rhode Island who built his fortune in the California Gold Rush, constructed the the largest hotel on Block Island in 1872, the grand Ocean View Hotel which gained the name “Queen of the Atlantic Coast." The hotel was destroyed by fire in 1966. Ball was instrumental in the building of Old Harbor, a port for ships down the hill from his hotel, as well as two lifesaving stations, and the Southeast Light. This "very scarce"book (according to Norris) privately printed for his friends advertises his more substantial 288-page THE PIONEERS OF '49 ... (1891) on page [40] and his hotel on page [39]. Cowan (1933), p. 30. Howes B68. Kurutz 32. Norris Catalogue 179. Wheat, Gold Rush, 9. Partial hairline crack along the inner front hinge (due to the frontispiece on heavy paper pasted to it), text block shaken (for the same reason), several small spots to cloth, a good copy. (#167651).
Price: $350.00
No statement of printing.