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Author: Guillemin-Tarayre, Edmond
Title: Mission Scientifique au Mexique et dans L'Amerique Centrale... Geologie. Description des Anciennes Possessions Mexicaines du Nord... (wrapper title)
Place Published: Paris
Publisher:Imprimerie Nationale
Date Published: 1871
Description: 216 pp. (text ends in midsentence on p. 216, as issued). With 20 lithographed and engraved maps, plans, profiles, and plates (some in color or on tinted grounds, several folding). 36.5x28 cm (14½x11"), pages loose in printed wrappers. First Edition.The maps and plates in this report relate primarily to mining and geology in California and Nevada, but often they contain fugitive details on the region before many of the towns and mining operations were abandoned. The plates were drawn by Erhard Schieble and all but one were printed by Lemercier. They are superb renditions of their subjects by some of the more accomplished mapmakers and view makers of the time, printed in a country at the height of its excellence in this type of work.These reports were included in the larger work on Mexico by the Commission Scientifique du Mexique because California and Nevada were formerly part of Mexico. Mining in California and Nevada was of intense international interest at the time - in 1859 silver was discovered at the Comstock Lode in Virginia City, and thousands of miners, loggers, and traders rushed to the region and towns sprang up, necessitating a railroad between Virginia City and Truckee through the Washoe Valley.

Wrappers chipped and worn, separated from pages; varying foxing and edgewear to pages, many uncut, plates clean throughout; very good.