Wanderings in South America, the North-West of the United States, and the Antilles, in the years 1812, 1816, 1820, and 1824. With original illustrations for the perfect preservation of birds &c

London: Mawman, 1825. 4to. (10 1/2 x 8 inches). First edition. a2 b-24. [il-vii [11-326 [2]. 336 pp. Illustrated with a steel engraved frontispiece and two in-text woodcut figures on pp.226 and 227. Frontispiece, Title, Preface, Wanderings in South America First Journey, Second Journey, Third Journey, Fourth Journey, On Preserving Birds for Cabinets of Natural History. Black blind-tooled morocco with gilt-ruling and elaborately decorated spine in five compartments with raised bands and burgundy lettering-pieces in second and fourth compartments reading with blue marbled endpapers and edges

First edition of a riveting early account of travels in South America and the "Northwest Passage" by the noted English naturalist and eccentric Charles Waterton, who described a Bigfoot-like cryptid called the "Nondescript Man," an engraved portrait of whom is the frontispiece.

English explorer, naturalist, and taxidermist Charles Waterton was born in West Yorkshire and educated at Stonyhurst College in - Lancashire. Allegedly, he was related to numerous saints, including Thomas More, as well as several Royal families and the Old English Chieftain Ailric. In 1804, Waterton traveled to Guyana to take charge of his uncle's estates near Georgetown. In 1812, he left Georgetown to explore the hinterlands of Guyana and collect "a quantity of the strong Wourali poison; and to reach the inland frontier fort of Portuguese Guiana." He reached Fort São Joachim where the fort's commandant told him he had been forty years in Guiana and had never met anybody who had seen a lake Waterton also sought. Waterton made four additional journeys between then and 1824, which are described in the present work. During his travels, he trapped and preserved many of the animal species he encountered. From these travels, he brought back the anesthetic agent curare to Europe. In the 1820s, after he had returned home to the West Yorkshire area, Waterton encircled three miles of his estate with a nine-foot-high wall to turn it into the world's first wildfowl and nature reserve. The frontispiece portrait to Wanderings in South America is of the strange being Wateron claimed to have witnessed, named "A Nondescript," part man and part animal, a hirsute creature composed of various features, not unlike Bigfoot. Waterton was eccentric: "His country neighbors in Yorkshire believed he had a real stuffed human being on his premises, which almost caused a local riot." (Hill) This work also provides early descriptions of tropical plants and animals from personal observation, of species that were then only known by museum samples, which could have made Waterton's "Nondescript Man" sighting more plausible than one may expect. Also contained in this volume is Waterton's "Fourth Journey" which describes his travels up the Hudson River to Albany, Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Quebec, Saratoga, Lake Champlain, and Lake George. He remarks on "the openness and candor which is so remarkable in the American." The "Northwest" of the title refers to Syracuse and the Erie Canal. Traveling up the Hudson River, Waterton observed that he'd come to the wrong country to looks for "bugs, bears, brutes, and buffalo," but looked upon the Americans nonetheless favorably: "Wherever you meet them, they appear to be quite at home. The immense number of highly polished females who go in the stages to visit the different places of amusement, and see the stupendous natural curiosities of this extensive county, incontestably proves that safety and convenience are assured to them, and that the most distant attempt at rudeness would, by common consent, be immediately put down." On pages 307 to 326 is a separate treatise on preserving birds for cabinets of natural history.

Alberich 1472. El 772. Hill 1833. Howego W16. Howes W-158. OCLC 367332985. Palau 374. Sabin 102094. Seymour 1066. Uriburu p.191.