COCHRANE, Capt. John Dundas. Narrative of A Pedestrian Journey Through Russia and Siberian Tartary, from the Frontiers of China to the Frozen Sea and Kamchatka … Third edition. London, John Murray, 1825.
Two volumes, 8vo. Contemporary diced calf, spines with raised bands, ornamented in gilt, black lettering-pieces (expertly re-backed, retaining original back-strips); pp. xxvii, 428, [4, publisher's catalogue]; iv, 336, two hand-coloured lithographic fontispieces, three folding engraved maps (one very large of the Northeast Passage, including Kamchatka and suspected inhabited land in the Polar Sea), a few wood-engraved vignettes; offsetting from one printed title to frontispiece, front hinges strenthened; otherwise a very attractive set with bookplates of Anthony MacTier of Durris, a wealthy Scottish East India merchant and opium trader.
An extraordinary narrative of Capt. Cochrane's four-year journey across Russia and Tartary. Cochrane has been described as one of the most eccentric of all travellers; the entire journey was made on foot and on horseback. Cochrane had 'left England with the intention of making a tour of the world by way of Russia, Siberia, and North America. He travelled by Dieppe, Paris, and Berlin to St Petersburg, most of the way on foot for the sake of economy. His subsequent progress was facilitated by the Russian government, who supplied him with the means to hire horses, sledges, and canoes. He reached Okhotsk in June 1821, having left England in February 1820. While in Kamchatka he married a lady of the country and abandoned the idea of prosecuting his journey any further. He returned to Europe by way of St Petersburg, which he reached in June 1823' (DNB). - The first edition of 1824 in one volume contained two maps and no plates or frontispiece.
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