Among the Selkirk Glaciers (First Edition, Fine Binding)

An early English-language account of the exploration and survey of the Selkirk Range, by a climbing clergyman who went there to map and climb.

William Spotswood Green was an Irish clergyman and naturalist who made a name in the 1880s as an explorer of mountain country. In 1888 he travelled to the Selkirks of British Columbia, then newly accessible by the Canadian Pacific Railway, to survey the range and its glaciers, and to climb. His book records that season: the approach from the railway, the survey work, the ascents and the Illecillewaet glacier country. It was among the first accounts to bring this part of the Rockies to British readers. The folding map was the first large-scale record of the range’s topography available to them, and the book remains a basic source for the early mountaineering history of Canada.

First edition. Octavo. xvi, 251pp., [ii: advertisements], with a frontispiece, plates and a large folding map at rear. Later rebinding in half red calf and marbled paper boards, the spine with five raised bands and gilt-decorated compartments. Near fine. The rebinding remains strong and in fine order. Contents near fine, with a little toning at the edges, otherwise clean and bright throughout.

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Catalogue Number: HH000947