The British Vice-Admiral and Arctic explorer Sir George Nares (1831-1915) received several honours for his contributions to science, including a fellowship of the Royal Society. He attended the Royal Naval School, New Cross, before joining the service in 1845. After a varied early career and the successful Challenger scientific expedition in the Atlantic, he took command of the British Arctic expedition of 1875-6 that hoped to reach the North Pole. Nares' popular two-volume account of the journey was published in 1878. Volume 1 describes the journey north, and covers the discovery of the channel later called Nares Strait, and the remarkable dog-sled expedition of second-in-command, Albert Markham, that set a new record for the farthest distance north achieved. Nares' official report of the expedition and Markham's account of the journey, The Great Frozen Sea, are also available from the Cambridge Library Collection.

The British Vice-Admiral and Arctic explorer Sir George Nares (1831-1915) received several honours for his contributions to science, including a fellowship of the Royal Society. He attended the Royal Naval School, New Cross, before joining the service in 1845. After a varied early career and the successful Challenger scientific expedition in the Atlantic, he took command of the British Arctic expedition of 1875-6. The expedition's attempt, led by second-in-command, Albert Markham, to reach the North Pole by dog-sled set a new record for farthest distance north achieved. This book, the second of Nares' popular two-volume account of the journey, published in 1878, describes the perilous return journey. It includes extensive appendices written by H. W. Feilden, giving details of the expedition's scientific discoveries, and features a cumulative index. Nares' official report of the expedition, and Markham's account, The Great Frozen North, are also available from the Cambridge Library Collection.

In 1897, the triumphant return of the Jackson-Harmsworth Arctic expedition revived widespread enthusiasm for Polar exploration. Within days of the expedition's arrival in London, newspapers ranging from the Boy's Own Paper to the Graphic were full of articles relating to the endeavours and findings of this intrepid undertaking. The demand for information did not abate and, in 1899, this two-volume account by Frederick G. Jackson (1860-1938) of his travels in Franz Josef Land was published to wide acclaim. Hailed by The Morning Post as 'a record of solid achievement accomplished by dint of steady perseverance in the face of hardship and difficulty', Jackson's journal describes a forbidding terrain of ice and snow. Illustrated by maps and numerous anthropological and zoological images, Volume 1 opens with the voyage north and goes on to recount the team's accommodation - a wooden hut named 'Elmwood' - bear-hunts, and arduous but inspirational journeys by sledge.

In 1897, the triumphant return of the Jackson Harmsworth Arctic expedition revived widespread enthusiasm for Polar exploration. Within days of the expedition's arrival in London, newspapers ranging from the Boy's Own Paper to the Graphic were full of articles relating to the endeavours and findings of this intrepid undertaking. The demand for information did not abate and, in 1899, this two-volume account by Frederick G. Jackson (1860 1938) of his travels in Franz Josef Land was published to wide acclaim. Hailed by The Morning Post as 'a record of solid achievement accomplished by dint of steady perseverance in the face of hardship and difficulty', Jackson's journal describes a forbidding terrain of ice and snow. Richly illustrated, Volume 2 includes accounts of new lands, dark winters, and a famous encounter with Nansen. It is supplemented by a substantial appendix containing geographical and scientific observations.

W. H. B. Webster (1793 1875) studied medicine and surgery in London, and in 1815 signed up to serve in the Royal Navy as an assistant surgeon. Because it was peacetime, however, he did not secure a position until 1828, when he was posted as ship's surgeon on the South Atlantic scientific mission of H.M.S. Chanticleer under Captain Henry Foster (1796 1831), a Fellow of the Royal Society with extensive experience of surveying expeditions. Published in 1834, this is Webster's two-volume account of the Chanticleer voyage, the objectives of which included work on longitudes, and carrying out gravity pendulum experiments at various latitudes to attempt more accurate calculation of the shape of the earth. Volume 1 covers the first two years of the voyage, and records Webster's impressions of South America, South Shetland (including some of the earliest scientific experiments in the Antarctic), South Africa, St Helena and Ascension Island."

W. H. B. Webster (1793 1875) studied medicine and surgery in London, and in 1815 signed up to serve in the Royal Navy as an assistant surgeon. Because it was peacetime, however, he did not secure a position until 1828, when he was posted as ship's surgeon on the South Atlantic scientific mission of H.M.S. Chanticleer under Captain Henry Foster (1796 1831), a Fellow of the Royal Society with extensive experience of surveying expeditions. Published in 1834, this is Webster's two-volume account of the Chanticleer voyage, the objectives of which included work on longitudes, and carrying out gravity pendulum experiments at various latitudes to attempt more accurate calculation of the shape of the earth. Volume 2 describes Central America and Panama, where, after successfully completing longitude measurements using rockets, Captain Foster tragically drowned. The second half of the volume summarises the scientific observations made during the voyage, and contains the cumulative index."

'Whether these mountains are climbed or not, smaller expeditions are a step in the right direction.' It's 1938, the British have thrown everything they've got at Everest but they've still not reached the summit. War in Europe seems inevitable; the Empire is shrinking. Still reeling from failure in 1936, the British are granted one more permit by the Tibetans, one more chance to climb the mountain. Only limited resources are available, so can a small team be assembled and succeed where larger teams have failed? H.W. Tilman is the obvious choice to lead a select team made up of some of the greatest British mountaineers history has ever known, including Eric Shipton, Frank Smythe and Noel Odell. Indeed, Tilman favours this lightweight approach. He carries oxygen but doesn't trust it or think it ethical to use it himself, and refuses to take luxuries on the expedition, although he does regret leaving a case of champagne behind for most of his time on the mountain. On the mountain, the team is cold, the weather very wintery. It is with amazing fortitude that they establish a camp six at all, thanks in part to a Sherpa going by the family name of Tensing. Tilman carries to the high camp, but exhausted he retreats, leaving Smythe and Shipton to settle in for the night. He records in his diary, 'Frank and Eric going well-think they may do it.' But the monsoon is fast approaching ...In Mount Everest 1938, first published in 1948, Tilman writes that it is difficult to give the layman much idea of the actual difficulties of the last 2,000 feet of Everest. He returns to the high camp and, in exceptional style, they try for the ridge, the route to the summit and those immense difficulties of the few remaining feet.

Vitus Bering (1681-1741) was a Danish-born Russian navigator. He enlisted in the Russian navy and fought during the Great Northern War (1700-21) against the Swedish Empire. In 1725 he received a commission from Peter the Great to discover whether there was a land bridge between Russia and America. He sailed through what would later be called the Bering Strait, but was unable to reach America on this first attempt. He succeeded on his next voyage, later named the Great Northern Expedition, and set about mapping significant sections of North American coastline. He also charted the Arctic coast of Siberia, 'discovered' Japan from the North and became the first European to explore Alaska. Published in English translation for the American market in 1889, this sympathetic biography by the historian and geographer Peter Lauridsen (1846-1923) had originally appeared in Danish in 1885. It includes extensive notes and an index.

George W. Melville (1841 1912) was a member of an 1879 American Arctic expedition seeking a northern passage from the Bering Strait to the Atlantic. Its ship was trapped in ice for nearly two years, and was eventually crushed and sank. The crew, stranded in three small boats, were left with few provisions and little hope of rescue. Melville was the only boat commander to bring his men to safety, assuming leadership of the survivors after landing in Siberia in 1881. He returned to search for other survivors, trekking over a thousand miles, but found only the bodies of his former companions in a frozen campsite, from which, however, he recovered the expedition's records. This account also includes details of Melville's role in the Greely Relief Expedition of 1884, from which he returned shortly before the book's British publication in 1885, and a detailed proposal for reaching the North Pole.

Robert Peary (1856-1920) was an American Arctic explorer. For much of the twentieth century, he was for many years credited with being, in 1909, the first man to reach the North Pole, although this has recently been questioned. Born in Cresson, Pennsylvania, Peary graduated from Bowdoin College in 1877 and joined the US Navy in 1881. He began his Arctic expeditions in 1886, exploring Greenland for a number of years in search of a route to the Pole. Published in 1893, this illustrated book consists of two parts. Drawing on the diaries of the expedition's surgeon, Robert Keely, Part I describes the journey that took Peary to Greenland in 1891. Part II uses the journal of the botanist William Meehan to describe the 1892 expedition to bring the exploring party home. The book includes transcripts of the logs of Richard Pike, captain of the Kite on both voyages.

In 1800-2 the naval officer James Grant (1772-1833) sailed to Australia on board the Lady Nelson, a surveying ship that was the first in England to be built on the sliding-keel principle. In this 1803 publication, Grant assesses the merits of the design and documents various teething problems experienced during the voyage from England to Australia. He describes his stay at Cape Town, and his favourable impression of the living standard of the deported convicts at Sydney, which he found better than that of poor people in England. Grant records his experiences on the coast of New South Wales, his encounters with the Aborigines there, and the presence of coal deposits on the Hunter River, and even reports that the cabra grub is 'no bad apology for a better meal'. He also describes his return journey via Cape Horn, during which he was becalmed in the South Atlantic.

Charles Sturt (1795-1869) was a British soldier, sent to New South Wales in charge of convicts in 1826. In 1827 Governor Darling appointed him to lead the first of two expeditions into the interior, in search of pastoral land for settlement and a navigable river system. Sturt's two-volume account of his journeys, published in 1833, begins with a description of the colony. Volume 1 focuses on the expedition of 1828-9, when Sturt and a small party travelled on horseback down the Macquarie River until it turned into marshes. Skirting the unhealthy swamps, they eventually discovered and named the Darling River, but were forced to turn back due to drought and a lack of fresh water, as the Darling was salt. Sturt describes the topgraphy, vegetation and wildlife, as well as his encounters with groups of Aborigines concerned for the party's welfare despite their own harsh living conditions.

Charles Sturt (1795-1869) was a British soldier, sent to New South Wales in charge of convicts in 1826. In 1827 Governor Darling appointed him to lead the first of two expeditions into the interior, in search of pastoral land for settlement and a navigable river system. Sturt's two-volume account of his journeys was published in 1833. Volume 2 describes how in November 1829 Sturt left Sydney to trace the Murrumbidgee River, which led him to the Lachlan, and ultimately the Murray. The ship which was supposed to be waiting for the party on the south coast had left, and the explorers were forced to row 900 miles back up river on low rations, an experience which permanently damaged Sturt's health. Despite these hardships, Sturt made careful records of the topography and flora of the region, as well as his encounters with the local, occasionally hostile, Aboriginal tribes.

John Forrest (1847-1918), was an Australian surveyor and explorer. At twenty-two, he led an expedition to determine the fate of Ludwig Leichardt, who had earlier disappeared in the western desert. The following year he surveyed the coastal route from Perth to Adelaide, establishing the possibility of a telegraph line. In 1874, he crossed the central western desert, a two-thousand mile journey which confirmed his heroic reputation. He received the founder's medal of the Royal Geographical Society in London and was appointed Deputy Surveyor-General. His account of these expeditions, published in 1875, is based on his diaries, with extracts from official letters and the newspapers that covered the events. Forrest became Premier of Western Australia, held several positions under the subsequent federal government, and was the first native-born Australian to be recommended for a barony. This book thus illuminates the political history of Australia and that of its geographical exploration.

Port Mackay is a district of Queensland, Australia, best known for its production of cane sugar. It was first settled in the 1860s, when John Mackay (1839-1914) successfully completed a mission to claim farmland and introduce agriculture there. First published in 1908, this study by the businessman and keen amateur anthropologist Henry Ling Roth (1855-1925) explores the district's history, tracing its development from an uncharted territory barely noticed by early European explorers to a burgeoning community that profited from its ideal conditions for cultivation. Drawing on extensive notes from his visits to the region over thirty years, as well as some fascinating anecdotal accounts from settlers, Roth explores the achievements of Port Mackay's early colonists in agriculture, industry and sea trading. The book contains maps and photographs, and includes a short account of the local Aboriginal population, and substantial notes on natural history and sporting pursuits.

Ernest Powell Giles (1835-97) is best remembered as one of the first explorers of South Australia. Powell emigrated to Australia with his parents in 1850, settling in Adelaide. From 1861 he was leading small-scale expeditions along the Darling River, searching for land suitable for cultivation. Following the completion of the Overland Telegraph Line between Adelaide and Darwin in 1872, Powell embarked on five expeditions attempting to discover an overland route between Adelaide and Perth. These volumes, first published in 1889, provide a detailed and dramatic account of his discoveries. Based on Powell's personal journals, these volumes describe in vivid detail the hardships and dangers of exploration in Australia in the nineteenth century, while providing an evocative description of the South Australian landscape before colonisation. Volume 1 contains Powell's account of his first two unsuccessful expeditions of 1872 and 1873, including his discovery of the Gibson Desert and Lake Amadeus.

Ernest Powell Giles (1835-97) is best remembered as one of the first explorers of South Australia. Powell emigrated to Australia with his parents in 1850, settling in Adelaide. From 1861 he was leading small-scale expeditions along the Darling River, searching for land suitable for cultivation. Following the completion of the Overland Telegraph Line between Adelaide and Darwin in 1872, Powell embarked on five expeditions attempting to discover an overland route between Adelaide and Perth. These volumes, first published in 1889, provide a detailed and dramatic account of his discoveries. Based on Powell's personal journals, these volumes describe in vivid detail the hardships and dangers of exploration in Australia in the nineteenth century, while providing an evocative description of the South Australian landscape before colonisation. Volume 2 deals with Powell's expeditions in 1874 and 1875, including his discovery of the Great Victoria Desert and his return journey.

John Lort Stokes (1812-85) was a naval officer on board H.M.S. Beagle - the same ship that had carried naturalist Charles Darwin around the world in 1831-6. Stokes served on that expedition and on the following commission, which was a survey of Australia in which the crew was charged with discovering more about the largely unknown land mass. The expedition set off in 1837 and Stokes did not return to England until 1843 - after 18 years of service on the Beagle - when he began work on this two-volume account of the voyage, which was published in 1846. This work provides a detailed narrative of the journey, including interaction with indigenous peoples and observations about the natural world in Australia, making it an important source about the early years of the European colony. Volume 1 covers Stokes' time exploring north-west Australia and includes illustrations of plants, insects, and reptiles.

John Lort Stokes (1812-85) was a naval officer on board H.M.S. Beagle - the same ship that had carried naturalist Charles Darwin around the world in 1831-6. Stokes served on that expedition and on the following commission, which was a survey of Australia in which the crew was charged with discovering more about the largely unknown land mass. The expedition set off in 1837 and Stokes did not return to England until 1843 - after 18 years of service on the Beagle - when he began work on this two-volume account of the voyage, which was published in 1846. This work provides a detailed narrative of the journey, including interaction with indigenous peoples and observations about the natural world in Australia, making it an important source about the early years of the European colony. Volume 2 sees the expedition explore the Victoria River, and later venture north into the Indonesian archipelago.

One of the most renowned nineteenth-century British explorers of Africa, David Livingstone (1813 73) was a medical missionary who received the Royal Geographical Society gold medal in 1855. His fame was established by his 1853 6 coast-to-coast exploration of the African interior, and by the best-selling Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa, published upon his return to England in 1857 (also reissued in this series). Livingstone's last expedition in search of 'the true source of the Nile', undertaken in 1866, forms the core of this two-volume travel diary, published posthumously in 1874. Volume 1 describes his illness-plagued journey from Zanzibar to Ujiji, in Western Tanzania. It also records his 1871 encounter with the New York Herald correspondent and explorer Henry Morton Stanley, who had been dispatched to find him after Livingstone had been cut off from the outside world for so long that he was presumed dead.

One of the most renowned nineteenth-century British explorers of Africa, David Livingstone (1813 73) was a medical missionary who received the Royal Geographical Society gold medal in 1855. His fame was established by his 1853 6 coast-to-coast exploration of the African interior, and by the best-selling Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa, published upon his return to England in 1857 (also reissued in this series). Livingstone's last expedition in search of 'the true source of the Nile', undertaken in 1866, forms the core of this two-volume travel diary, published posthumously in 1874. Volume 2 describes the last two years of his life, when, after his meeting with the journalist Henry Morton Stanley in 1871, Livingstone insisted on staying in Africa despite his poor health. It includes details about his death and the journey to bring his body back to the British authorities, reported by Livingstone's attendants Chuma and Susi.

This is an English translation from 1772 of the famous Voyage Autour du Monde (1771) by Louis de Bougainville (1729 1811), French admiral and explorer. The contemporary fascination with global circumnavigation created demand for this translation by John Reinhold Forster (1729 98), which includes many annotations and comments from the translator himself on de Bougainville's observations. Describing all of de Bougainville's adventures on the voyage (which took place between 1766 and 1769) as well as his descriptions of local flora and fauna, the gripping tale includes such interesting passages as the unmasking of the botanist's valet as a woman (the first known to have circumnavigated the globe); de Bougainville's famous descriptions of Tahitian society; and graphic descriptions of the discomforts and perils of sea voyaging in the eighteenth century. It includes a copy of the original eighteenth-century plot of the route, and several plates representing original sketches from the trip.

When the experienced Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin (1786-1847) was put in command of an expedition in 1845 to search for the elusive North-West Passage he had the backing of the Admiralty and was equipped with two specially-adapted ships and a three-year supply of provisions. Franklin was last seen by whalers in Baffin Bay in July 1845. When the expedition failed to return in 1848, enormous resources were mobilised to try to discover its fate. In 1852 H.M.S. 'Assistance' was sent to lead another search mission. It was captained by Edward Belcher (1799-1877), who eventually took the decision to abandon four ships in the pack-ice. He recounts his unsuccessful adventure, defending his actions against critics, in this illustrated two-volume book, first published in 1855, which also includes scientific contributions. Volume 1 describes Belcher's outward journey, Arctic animals such as walruses and whales, and the effects of extreme cold.

Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820) was a British botanist and one of the most influential scientific patrons of the eighteenth century. After inheriting a fortune on the death of his father in 1761, Banks devoted his life to studying natural history. His fame following his participation in Captain Cook's epic voyage on the Endeavour between 1768 and 1771 led to his election as President of the Royal Society in 1778, a post which he then held until his death. This volume, first published in 1896, contains Banks' account of the voyage of the Endeavour across the Pacific Ocean. Edited by the great botanist Sir Joseph Hooker, it describes in fascinating detail the peoples, cultures and wildlife Banks encountered in Tahiti, New Zealand and Australia. Banks' aptitude as a natural historian and the crucial role he played in cataloguing and illustrating exotic wildlife during the expedition are emphasised in the work.

In Travels Through Norway and Lapland, Leopold von Buch (1774-1853), a German geologist and palaeontologist, recounts his expedition to Scandinavia in 1806-1808. This book, originally published in Berlin in 1810, and in this English translation in 1813, describes these large, sparsely populated regions at the turn of the nineteenth century. The translator's preface provides an important geo-political backdrop - the possibility of war in Norway and the machinations of Sweden, Russia and Great Britain over the future of this territory. Von Buch's observations, however, are firmly engaged with the scientific. He writes that his motivation for the expedition was to find out how the harsh climate influenced the land, and he records detailed information about the weather and the region's mineralogy and geological structure. He also describes the local population, providing a wide-ranging account of life in the remote reaches of Northern Europe.