Three Years of Arctic Service

An Account of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition of 1881-84 and the Attainment of the Farthest North

By Adolphus W Greely

London, Richard Bentley and Son, 1886, First UK Edition, same year and collation as first US edition., 1886. large 8vo; 2 Volumes, xxv, 428, xii, [1], 444 pp, illus, 44 plates including frontispieces with tissue guards (including engraved portrait of Greely), plus 9 maps with some edge fraying to one large fold-out map at rear of Volume II due to overlapping the page edges, 2 Appendices, Index. Original publisher’s dark blue cloth with Arctic pictorial on front boards, bright gilt spine title lettering, dark brown clay endspapers, very light foxing on some leaves; hinges strong although showing beginning signs of cracking; prior ownership small signature and stamp on 2nd ffe, each title page lightly stamped with prior ownership marking dated the year of publication. A Scarce and Very Good+ set complete with all maps and plates.

—Arctic Bibliography 6118.

This narrative of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition by the leader, Lt. Adolphus Greely, includes accounts of the battle with ice on the sea, the sledge journeys, the life of the men in camp and on the march, and the geography of territory explored; with a chapter on polar ice. Well illustrated and greatly detailed, the account combines narrative from journal excerpts to tell the story of one of the most celebrated and tragic of Arctic expeditions. The preface gives a good insight on the author. Though he is a stolid writer, it is an outstanding narrative. Appendices include notes on ethnology, natural history, ornithology, botany, and auroral displays. An excellent account of the American expedition of 1881-84, based at Fort Conger, Lady Franklin Bay, on the east coast of Ellesmere Island, which explored the north coast of Greenland from Cape Bryant to Cape Washington, the interior and west coast of Grinnell Land, and Hayes Sound on Ellesmere. All but seven members of the party perished of starvation before the survivors were rescued at Cape Sabine, Smith Sound.