L. W. Currey, Inc.

MATTHES, FRANÇOIS EMILE. Sketch of Yosemite National Park and an account of the origin of the Yosemite and Hetch Hetchy valleys [cover title]. [Washington]: Department of the Interior, Office of the Secretary, 1912. 23.2x15 cm, pp. [1] 2-47 [48: Government Printing Office logo], 21 illustrations (including cover illustration), 2 diagrams, 1 map, pictorial self wrappers, stapled. First edition, first printing? Between 1910 and 1913, concurrent with Matthes' growing interest in geomorphology, he contributed a series of four geological essays to the Sierra Club Bulletin on the origin of the Yosemite Valley, long a controversial question. This sketch, first published in 1912, was Matthes' first separately published study of the evolution of geologic features of the Yosemite region. On July 1, 1913 Matthes was transferred from the Topographic Branch of the Geological Survey to the Geologic Branch. His first geologic assignment was to study the origin of the Yosemite Valley. His completed report, Geologic history of the Yosemite Valley, an exhaustive investigation of geology and geomorphology of the Yosemite region, was published sixteen years later, in the fall of 1930. There is another printing dated 1912 with text ending on page 45, followed by three blank pages, priority not determined. Some copies of this printing are string tied, some are stapled, this being one of the latter. All copies dated 1912 are uncommon. Several rubs and spots on outer leaf, some wear along spine fold of outer leaf, a very good copy. (#178419).

Price: $250.00