A nature writer bears witness to the impact of humanity
CHAPMAN, Abel. The Borders and Beyond. Arctic … Cheviot … Tropic. London and Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd for Gurney and Jackson, 1924.
8vo (220 x 150mm). Original dark green cloth, boards with blind-ruled borders, spine lettered in gilt, top edges gilt; pp. [2 ], xxi, [1 (blank)], 489, [3 (publisher's advertisements)]; colour-printed frontispiece after William Hatton Riddell, retaining printed tissue guard, 13 colour-printed plates after Riddell, retaining printed tissue guards, 21 plates, 2 folding maps, one printed in red and black, illustrations in the text; slightly rubbed and bumped at extremities, small mark to front board, otherwise a very good copy. Provenance: bookplate of Ellison Library of the Royal Zoological Society of Ireland, with cancellation stamp.
First edition. 'This book essays to epitomise in part the experiences of a life-time devoted to the direct Study of Nature in her wilder aspects -- or, perhaps better expressed, in her wildest forms. Expressly avoiding "the line of least resistance", the Author's main objective has consistently lain in the direction of understanding those reclusive types of Creation which most bitterly resent human intrusion on their privacy, or those whose remote and inhospitable haunts are ever the least congenial in our comfort-loving age. Of many of these wilder creatures the life-histories, always neglected, have never hitherto been traced in detail -- perhaps they never will be correctly. Herein accrues one advantage -- that this book, whatever its shortcomings, is based solely on first-hand personal observation of subjects that are the least understood' (preface, p.vii). Chute further adds that the work 'contains much information on grouse, black game, wildfowl, salmon and other species. An interesting chapter on the history of wild bird protection'.
Chute 096 (erroneously calling for 16 colour plates).
#2117091