Journal of a Voyage to the Northern Whale-Fishery; Including Researches and Discoveries on the Eastern Coast of West Greenland, Made in the Summer of 1822 in the Ship Baffin of Liverpool.

Edinburgh: Archibald Constable, 1823. First edition. 22 cm; xliii, 472 pages, [6] leaves of plates : illustrations (some folded), 2 folded maps, plan. Bound in contemporary half calf over marbled boards, tooled in blind, titled in gilt on leather label. Marbled edges. Tissue guards. Armorial bookplate of Lord Blantyre (probably Robert Walter Stuart, 1777-1830). Some wear to edges and to joints, with light to moderate foxing. References: Arctic Bib 15614; Sabin 78171.

William Scoresby, a multi-talented individual, was a commercial whaler, a scientist, and ultimately a religious cleric. In his commercial whaling endeavors, he set the pace for the British exploration of polar regions. In the 1822 whaling expedition to Greenland and Baffin Bay, he mapped about 400 miles of uncharted Greenland coast. The account is intended as a scientific report, describing weather conditions, optical illusions caused by ice and raking light, and Inuit dwellings and burials. In appendix is a list of rock specimens by W.Jameson, an annotated list of 45 species of plants by Sir W.J.Hooker, a list of animals, a meteorological table and extracts from the journals of other whalers.