2 volumes, 8vo (188 x 112 mm). 2 steel-engraved frontispieces, 2 engraved maps (one folding), 4 wood-engraved plates, 5 in-text illustrations (spotting throughout, toning). Original brown cloth gilt (rubbing, wear to spine ends, spotting to endpapers).

FIRST EDITION of Josiah Gregg's account of his life as a trader on the Santa Fe Trail prior to the start of the California Gold Rush with the accompanying map, the most accurate of the region produced to that time and considered to be a "cartographic landmark...an outstanding achievement" (Wheat). Gregg's work features commentary on climate, geography, botany, and biology, as well as the local Indigenous peoples and their cultures. His suggestions of where to find the source of the Red River inspired the Randolph B. Marcy expedition of 1852. Dobie p.76; Howes G401; Graff 1659; Rader 1684; Rittenhouse 255; Streeter sale 378; Wagner-Camp 108:1; Wheat, Transmississippi 482.