Travel - Atlas - Lot 672

Travel - Atlas PETIT-THOUARS (Abel Aubert, du) Voyage autour du Monde sur la Frégate La Vénus pendant les années 1836- 1839, publié par ordre du Roi, sous les Auspices du Ministre de la Marine, par Abel du Petit-Thouars, Capitaine de Vaisseau Paris, Gide, 1840-55. [Atlas de Zoologie (1846) - Atlas de Botanique (1846). 10 volumes in-8 (text). Atlas in plano (atlas of zoology): 78/79 plates (75 of which colored and gummed): Mammals (13 plates) - Birds (10 plates, browned papers) - Reptiles (3 plates) - Fish (10 plates) - Mollusks (26 plates) - Zoophytes (16 plates). One plate missing. Atlas In folio (botanical atlas): 28 plates in black. Contemporary ½ red chagrin, spines decorated with faux-nerfs (text). ½ red chagrin, smooth spine, rubbed corners (zoology atlas). ½ green calf, smooth spine, rubbing (botany atlas). This mission was primarily intended to protect and develop whaling. In addition, the aim was to gather information on the opportunities offered to French trade by the Russian settlements of Kamchatka and the coasts of Mexico and California. The expedition left Brest in December 1836, followed the Cape Horn route, reached Kamchatka via Honolulu, crossed the Pacific again and arrived in the Galapagos in January 1838. In August, she reached Papeete, then New Zealand, Sydney and the Indian Ocean, returning to Brest in 1839. The scientific contribution was considerable in terms of oceanography (measuring depths in excess of four thousand meters), zoology (with the discovery of plankton), geology, botany and anthropology. Volumes I to IV: "Relation avec une carte générale du Monde" (without the picturesque atlas) - Volume V: "Zoologie, Mammifères, Oiseaux, Reptiles et Poissons" (volume missing from most collections) - Volumes VI to X: Physique (1842-1844). Does not include the botany volume published 20 years later in 1864. With the atlas of zoology and botany; lacking the picturesque atlas and the hydrological atlas (Sabin 21354).