Beschreibung:

[2], viii, cxxxii, 412, [2] errata pp. Engraved frontispiece portrait, 3 large folding engraved maps (1 with hand-coloring). (4to) 26.7x19.7 cm (10½x7¾"), period half calf & marbled boards, gilt-tooled spine, marbled endpapers. First Edition. First edition of one of the landmark works in the exploration of North America. Alexander Mackenzie a senior wintering partner with the North West Company, sought an overland passage from the fur-bearing regions of the Athabasca Country to the Pacific Ocean. Following Peter Pond’s speculation that the Pacific Ocean might be reached by a water route from Great Slave Lake, his first expedition in 1789 started out at Fort Chipewyan. This route did not take him to the Pacific as he had hoped, but to the Arctic “Frozen Ocean” down the river that would later become the Mackenzie River. In his second attempt to reach the Pacific, Mackenzie ascended the Peace River by canoe and on foot, and crossed over into the headwaters of the Fraser River. After being turned back by torrential currents, he and his party decided to make an overland attempt. They landed near the present site of Bella Coola, British Columbia. Mackenzie had reached the Pacific, and in so doing became the first white man to cross the American continent north of Mexico. Researchers now believe that the “Map of America… Exhibiting Mackenzie’s Track from Montreal to Fort Chipewyan from thence to the North Sea, in 1789 and to the West Pacific Ocean in 1793” was drawn by David Thompson Howes M-133. Wagner-Camp 1:1. Streeter 3653.