First edition, first printing. One of the early and basic Yosemite books, the result of a survey begun in 1863 under the direction of Josiah Dwight Whitney, the State Geologist, with Clarence King and James T. Gardner in the surveying party, and Carleton Watkins as photographer. The two maps are: "Map of the Yosemite Valley from Surveys made by order of the Commissioners to manage the Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Big Tree Grove by C. King and J.T. Gardner," and "Map of a portion of the Sierra Nevada adjacent to the Yosemite Valley from surveys made by Chs. F. Hoffmann and J.T. Gardner, 1863-67." These maps are among the most detailed and largest scale maps published of Yosemite during this part of the 19th century, rivaled only by the Wheeler Survey map of Yosemite published in 1883. The predecessor of this book was published in quarto with the title "The Yosemite Book...", see our PubList No. 5949.000, with tipped-in photographs instead of woodcuts, the same two maps, in an edition of 250 (Currey & Kruska 60). Later editions changed the maps (1872) and added two more maps (1874). Text includes perhaps the earliest American discussion of life zones or belts of vegetation and habitat corresponding to climatic differences created by latitudinal and elevational differences, in this case in the Sierra Nevada. Whitney is also among the first to describe the remarkable inverted relief of Table Mountain in the Sierra Foothills near Yosemite.
pub_note
First edition, first printing. One of the early and basic Yosemite books, the result of a survey begun in 1863 under the direction of Josiah Dwight Whitney, the State Geologist, with Clarence King and James T. Gardner in the surveying party, and Carleton Watkins as photographer. The two maps are: "Map of the Yosemite Valley from Surveys made by order of the Commissioners to manage the Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Big Tree Grove by C. King and J.T. Gardner," and "Map of a portion of the Sierra Nevada adjacent to the Yosemite Valley from surveys made by Chs. F. Hoffmann and J.T. Gardner, 1863-67." These maps are among the most detailed and largest scale maps published of Yosemite during this part of the 19th century, rivaled only by the Wheeler Survey map of Yosemite published in 1883. The predecessor of this book was published in quarto with the title "The Yosemite Book...", see our PubList No. 5949.000, with tipped-in photographs instead of woodcuts, the same two maps, in an edition of 250 (Currey & Kruska 60). Later editions changed the maps (1872) and added two more maps (1874). Text includes perhaps the earliest American discussion of life zones or belts of vegetation and habitat corresponding to climatic differences created by latitudinal and elevational differences, in this case in the Sierra Nevada. Whitney is also among the first to describe the remarkable inverted relief of Table Mountain in the Sierra Foothills near Yosemite.
Pub Note
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