270 H.M.S. MEGAERA, AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND NAVAL INTEREST WILSON, George, Sub-Lieutenant June 1870 to October 1873 hand-written journal kept by Wilson. It comprises of geographic details and observations as well as extensive diary entries. Wilson was one of a contingent of junior ratings sent from England to bolster the staff stationed at Sydney. All were on the same ship, the Megaera, which was beached and abandoned on St.Paul’s Island in the Indian Ocean. He saw further service out of Sydney on H.M.S. Rosario and in New Zealand and spent some time involved in the "blackbirding" trade in the South Pacific. Well written, very legible and in good overall condition, this unique journal is now housed in a purpose-made solander box. $2,000–2,500 271 CAPTAIN COOK: A small group of (7) hardcover books, mostly with illustrated front covers, published between 1870 and 1916. Cook’s Voyages presented as adventures. Mixed condition. $150–200 ❖ 272 DE AMEZAGA, Comandante Carlo Viaggio di Circumnavigazione della regia corvetta "Caracciolo" (Comandante C. de Amezaga), negli anni 1881-82-83-84. [Roma, Forzani e Comp., 1885] Volume 1; rebound in blue half leather with grey boards; green and red spine labels, new end papers. Folding maps, engravings, lithographs 332 pp, index; untrimmed. The route of the Caracciola included the east coast of Australia, with chapters devoted to Sydney, Townsville and Thursday Island. De Amezaga was the first Italian on board the ship Caracciolo to perform the circumnavigation of the globe, collecting and describing many artefacts that can still be seen at the naval museum of Genoa. De Amezaga had travelled westward touching points such as Gibraltar, Madeira , Cape Verde, some ports of Brazil, Montevideo, ports of the South American Pacific, to then reach Tahiti, the Fiji Islands, Australia, Java, Sumatra, the Seychelles, Aden, Assab, then passing through the Suez Canal and finally arriving in Venice. $250–300 ❖ 273 GILES, Ernest AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED: The Romance of Exploration [Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, Limited, London, 1889] Two volumes, octavo, with plates, folding coloured maps and illustrations in the text; in the fully pictorial grey-green cloth boards, lettered in gilt. Australia Twice Traversed represents the collected narratives of Ernest Giles’s five expeditions through the centre and the west of Australia from 1872 to 1876. He struggled to find an overland route to Western Australia, but it was not until his expedition of 1875-6 that he achieved the extraordinary feat of crossing the continent from South to Western Australia, via the Great Victoria Desert, and returning via Gibson’s Desert (which he had earlier named after one of his men). This is among the most handsome of nineteenth-century Australian books, and one of the most popular of all Australian exploration accounts. Spines a bit rubbed, slightly loose, corners and extremities slightly frayed. Some tone spotting throughout. $750–1,000 274 KING, Philip Gidley [1817 - 1914] Comments on Cook’s Log (H.M.S.Endeavour, 1770) : with Extracts, Charts and Sketches [Sydney : Charles Potter, Govt. Printer, 1891]. Quarto, publisher’s purple pebbled cloth boards (rubbed and sunned), upper board lettered in gilt, 30 pp, [22] leaves of plates. $200–300 ❖ 275 JACK, Robert L., and ETHERIDGE, Robert (Jnr), The Geology and Palaeontology of Queensland and New Guinea, with sixty-eight plates and a geological map of Queensland [Brisbane; James Charles Beal, Gov’t Printer, 1892] Vol.1 (text) 768p; Vol. 2 (plates) 68 plates + text including Pl.59 a Plan of Charters Towers Gold Field; Part 3 being a huge Geographical Map of Queensland in 6 large sheets contained in a slipcase. All bound in original green cloth with gilt titles to spines. Some faults, but extremely scarce. $1,000–1,500 ❖ 276 KITSON, Arthur Captain James Cook R.N., F .R.S. "The Circumnavigator" [John Murray, London, 1907] 1st edition; pp. xvi, 526 (last colophon), [2 (pubs. cat.)], with 20 illustrations + a folding map. Specially rebound in vellum with gilt embossing to front cover "The Duke of Devonshire Prize - Presented by the British Empire League 1927 ." and with details of the presentation and recipient (John Robert Murray Senior) in an attractive mss label affixed to the front pastedown. $100–150 ❖ 277 SPENCER, Baldwin Native Tribes of the Northern Territory of Australia [Macmillan, London, 1914] 1914 first edition bound in green cloth. Gilt to front and spine. 516 pages. 92 illustrations, 36 plates and a map. An ex-library book that clearly was not used. The dust jacket is present but in damaged condition. Some uncut paper edges. Anthropological study of the Aborigines of Northern Australia with extensive illustrations. Spencer’s text is the result of a government scientific commission to the Territory to make preliminary surveys for settlement, while there he was able to assemble extensive notes on the occupants. $300–500 ❖ 270 40