Bidspirit auction | Lyell's Travels in North America,

Lyell's Travels in North America, Canada, and Nova Scotia & Second Visit - 4 Volumes with 7 Plates & Text - This beautifully bound four volume work with seven plates is Sir Charles Lyell's Travels in North America, Canada, and Nova Scotia & A Second Visit to North America . The works were published in London by John Murray in 1855. The first visit is the second edition with 7 plates including two large folding color plates. The second visit is the third edition. Lyell traversed the Hudson River, New York, Niagara Falls, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, the Alleghenies Carolinas, Kentucky, Ohio, Saint Lawrence River, and Nova Scotia in his travels. One of the large fold out plates is a geological map of North America. It was an important early geological study of the area including parts of the West including the Republic of Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, and the North West Territory. The works are bound in leather by Andrew Grieve of Edinburgh. Uniform period half morocco gilt, spines gilt in compartments, marbled, edges and endpapers. Each work is in two volumes. Sir Charles Lyell (1797-1875) was a Scottish geologist. He studied the power of natural forces on the earth's history. He also authored the Principles of Geology. He also proposed a pioneering explanation of climate change, pointing to the shifting boundaries between oceans and continents to explain long term variations in temperature and rainfall. He was associated with Charles Darwin who wrote of him in On the Origin of Species . Stating ”he who can read Sir Charles Lyell's grand work on the Principles of Geology , which the future historian will recognise as having produced a revolution in natural science, yet does not admit how incomprehensibly vast have been the past periods of time, may at once close this volume.” Lyell was instrumental in helping Darwin & Alfred Russel Wallace publish papers on natural selection in 1858. Provenance: Bookplate of Peter Carmichael Paper Size: ~ 7 1/2” by 4 3/4” Paper Type or Special Features: 4 Volumes with 7 Plates & Text