Boston, MA, Houghton, Mifflin, 1888. Two volumes in two. Large 8vo (25.2 x 16.7 cm). 434 pp.[xxii, 314; 220]; over 550 fine - often large - text illustrations; one folded map. Original blue linen with gilt title on the spines. Top edges gilt.

A well-told and profusely illustrated narrative about one of the major, if not the most important, American marine dredging and surveying cruises of all time. The Steamer "Blake" was a U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey vessel that conducted three pioneering oceanographic and dredging expeditions between 1877 and 1880. Led by Alexander Agassiz, these historical cruises explored both shallow and deeper water of the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and north along part of the Westen Atlantic. Numerous new species of molluscs and other marine life were discovered. The set of the American malacologist Richard Irwin Johnson (1925-2020). Map in rear pocket present. A few leaves uncut. Some wear to spine ends, and remnant of library numbering on the spine foot of both volumes; inner rear joint of second volume partly split; otherwise, a very good, clean and unmarked set. Cat. BM(NH), p. 16.