Beschreibung:

ENGEL, Samuel (1702-1784). Memoires et observations geographiques et critiques sur la situation des pays septentrionaux de l'Asie et de l'Amerique... Lausanne, 1765.
ENGEL, Samuel (1702-1784). Memoires et observations geographiques et critiques sur la situation des pays septentrionaux de l'Asie et de l'Amerique... Lausanne, 1765. 4 o (241 x 192 mm). Engraved coat-of-arms of Denmark, 2 engraved folding maps (a few short tears along folds). Contemporary calf (rebacked, repair to upper cover and edges). FIRST EDITION of this important geography of the arctic regions. Engel "examined diligently the maps and writings of Kirilov (the compiler of the first Russian atlas), Buache, Delisle, Müller, Gmelin, and others--and invariably, with some justification, found something wrong with each of them. He examined these works with regard to the northern parts of both Asia and America. Most of the questions he raised were valid and the present-day student of these regions would profit by reading his work with a modern maps before him, to see who was right or wrong--and when wrong, how wrong. A valuable part of Engel's present work is his rejection of the presistent belief held by many of his contemporary geographers and cartographers that California was an island. He unequivocally asserted... that (in translation), 'California is not an island but a peninsula'" (Lada-Mocarski). The two excellent maps engraved by I.A. Chovin are "Carte de la partie Septentrionale et Occidentale de l'Amerique " and "Carte de la partie Septentrionale et Orientale de l'Asie " with four insets of North American regions. According to Wagner, the first map is "chiefly interesting for the remarkable imagination displayed by the maker about the rivers entering the northwest coast... Lahotan's geography is followed, but the famous Lake Tahuglauk is almost thirty degrees of longitude removed from the coast." Howes E-149; Lada-Mocarski 18; Sabin 22571; Streeter sale 3460; Wagner Northwest Coast 603 & 604; Wickersham 3542.