New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1871. First Edition, First Printing. A Near Fine Hardcover.

Bound in modern calf-backed marbled boards, raised bands, morocco spine labels lettered in gilt; new endpapers by G. Mottram Stamford.  8vo; 19.8 by 12.5 cm, 7.75 by 5 inches; xx, [25]-529, 6 ad pp. Illustrated with 40 woodcut engravings including frontispiece; plates have tissue-guards; Plus a large folding map of route at rear. Meteorological tables: pages 521-529. First Edition.

Bindings are tight and square. Text clean, light even toning, scattered soiling, and foxing. Moderate shelf handling wear, the folded map is toned and torn along folds and has been professionally repaired with minimal loss. A few pages that had ‘dogears’ have been repaired.

Near Fine;No Dust Jacket As Issued. Item #014200

Is it possible to connect two continents by a telegraph line through Bering Strait? Richard J. Bush thought it was possible even though he encountered challenges such as a sinking ship, shortage of supplies, annoying mosquitoes, hungry dogs.

Background Information:
With After three years of military service in the Southern USA, Bush and two other men accepted a mission to explore Siberia under the leadership of Russian Major Serge Abasa. This book complements George Kennan's Tent Life in Siberia. It describes Bush's lengthy expedition in behalf of the Russian- American Telegraph Company's survey in Siberia in the 1860's. Bush spent several years in Siberia surveying the proposed route of the Russian-American Telegraph Company's line.

He here recounts his travels from the Kamchatka Peninsula to Sakhalin Island to the Sea of Okhotsk, down the Anadyr River, and from thence to the Bering Strait. In the long run, the telegraph expedition, while an abject economic failure, provided a further means by which America was able to expand its Manifest Destiny beyond its national boundaries and may have precipitated the US purchase of Alaska.

Along with George Kennan, the author was a member of the party exploring for a telegraph to Europe through Alaska and Siberia, as the undersea cable had failed.

Ref: Smithsonian-digital; Smith B173; Arctic Bib. 2562

Price: $595.00