Lot 271: MARRYAT, FRANCIS SAMUEL. 1826-1855. Mountains and Molehills or Recollections of a Burnt Journal. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1855.

Mountains and Molehills or Recollections of a Burnt Journal. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1855. x, [2], 443, [1], 24 pp. 8 hand-colored lithographed plates. 8vo. Original salmon blindstamped cloth, spine lettered in gilt. A few scattered spots, expertly rebacked and with new endpapers, spine darkened.

FIRST EDITION. The British edition with the desirable colored lithographed plates not found in the American edition. Marryat began his narrative in April, 1850 in sight of the town of Chagres. He arrived in San Francisco on June 14, 1850 and the following year mined for quartz in the Tuttletown, Tuolumne County region. The work is interesting not only for his descriptions of mining, but also for the vividly illustrated account of early San Francisco. Cowan p 416; Howes M299; Kurutz 429a; Sabin 44695.
Acquisition: purchased from Argonaut Book Shop, 1996, $1,200.