Folio (320 x 200 mm). 19 folding maps (dust-soiling to edges of a few, a few with tears occasionally crossing border image); 13 single-page maps and plates; numerous maps, diagrams and illustrations in-text, many full-page. (Some spotting, a few margins at end trimmed just affecting text.) Modern half calf. Provenance: Collector's bookplate, a few pencil marks. 

FIRST EDITION of the largest of the Arctic "Blue Books," British Parliamentary papers on exploration in the Canadian North. Contains dozens of reports about attempts at recovering the lost expedition of Sir John Franklin in the Eastern and Western Arctic, the majority of which deal with Sir Edward Belcher's expedition of 1852-3. Arctic Bibliography 45245.