THE FIRST CROSSING OF SPITSBERGEN. Being an Account of an Inland Journey of Exploration and Survey, with Descriptions of Several Mountain Ascents, of Boat Expeditions in Ice Fjord, of a Voyage of North-East-Land, the Seven Islands.

London: Dent, 1897. Tall and thick 8vo. xii + 371pp. Eight colour lithographic plates (after sketches by H.E. Conway), coated paper, numerous b/w photo plates and illus.; two large colour folding maps. Quarter beige cloth, with light brown moiré cloth over bevelled boards, gilt still bright. Bookplate of the Climbers Library, Birmingham, Great Britain. Corners of boards slightly bumped. A clean, little used copy. "I was too excited about the next advance to await the process of tent-pitching, but went straight on up the hill on my left, round whose foot the glacier bent at its termination. It would be impossible to exaggerate the dejection of mind which at this time possessed us all. Obviously the glacier was a very large one." Conway and companions spent the summers of 1896 and 1897 exploring, climbing and surveying West Spitsbergen. The party conducted challenging overland expeditions as well as thirteen mountain ascents over areas and up mountains then virtually unknown. They surveyed nearly 600 square miles of central West Spitsbergen, which included nearly circumnavigating the entire main island. [AB 3378].…