Thirty-four sketches to illustrate Voyages of Discovery in the Arctic and Antarctic Seas, and round the World..., (London: 1884):

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Robert M'Cormick, R.N., F.R.C.S. (1800-1890)
Thirty-four sketches to illustrate Voyages of Discovery in the Arctic and Antarctic Seas, and round the World..., (London: 1884):
PART I: 'VOYAGE OF H.M.S. "EREBUS" AND "TERROR" TO THE ANTARCTIC SEAS'

St. Paul's Rocks (two sketches) (I, facing p.18)

St. Helena: Fairy Land and Lot's Peak; Napoleon's Tomb from the Road to Diana's Peak (I, facing pp.28 and 32)

Cape Town: Table Bay, & Cape Town, as seen from the summit of Table Mountain March 26/40 (not illustrated, and see I, pp.41-3)

East Island bearing N.W. by W. April 28/30 (not illustrated, and see I, p.45)

America Bay, Possession Island, May 1st/40 (not illustrated and see I, p.45)

Kerguelen: Exploring boat hauled up for the night, top of Cumberland Bay (two sketches); N.W. Bay discovered on the weather coast of Kerguelen's Land while away in the boat June 3/40 [Gregson's Bay]; Isthmus Bay [Club-mess Bay] (two sketches); Cumberland Bay, exploring boat bearing up in a gale... (two sketches); Boat Promontory, South Bay, Cumberland Bay - (I, facing pp.56, 70, 81 and 82)

Tasmania: Mount Direction & the Coif, Tasmania, as seen from the anchorage in the Derwent, Oct 2nd 1840 (not illustrated and see I, p.107)

Antarctica: Victoria Land - bearing S.W. to S.W. by W. Mounts Sabine and Herschell two remarkable Peaks with the Black Headland of Cape McCormick between them, Jany 15th 1841; Mounts "Erebus" and "Terror" bearing from E. by S. to E. by N. and Beaufort Island in front. Feb.16 1841; the remarkable Bight in the Antarctic Barrier ('The stupendous ice-cliffs forming the extraordinary bight in the great Antarctic Barrier, sketched as the "Erebus" tacked off its entrance') - (I, facing pp.150, 164 and 170)

Tasmania: Mount Wellington and River Derwent, Tasmania, sketched from Risden; Risden, Tasmania (residence of T. Gregson, Esq.) - (I, facing pp.204 and 206)

New Zealand: Revd. Williams' House & Printing office, Pahia Bay of Islands New Zealand, Nov 23/41 - (not illustrated, and see I, p.214)

Antarctica: Ships fast on east side of a floe, Jan. 18/42... - (I, facing p.258)

South America: cape Horn with offlying rocks; Cape Spencer and Joichim's Cove; and St. Martin's Cove, Hermite Islands (Tierra del Fuego) - (I, facing pp.298, 312 and 322)

St. Helena: James Town with Ladder Hill... May 12/43 (not illustrated, and see I, p.365)

PART II: 'ATTEMPT TO REACH THE NORTH POLE IN THE YEAR 1827'

Spitzbergen: HMS "Hecla" driven out of Smeerenberg Harbour into the pack in a gale of wind; The seven Islands as seen from the "Crow's nest" of H.M.S. "Hecla" 7 leagues distant; Hecla cove, Sptizbergen - (I, facing pp.386, 396 and 400)

PART III: 'VOYAGE IN SEARCH OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN AND THE CREWS OF H.M.S. "EREBUS" AND "TERROR"'

Greenland: Disco Mountain; Esquimaux Settlement Cape York, coast of Greenland; Holsteinberg, Greenland; and "Forlorn Hope" running under the lee of Icebergs aground in Wellington Channel off Cape Osboorne in a gale of wind August 23rd 1882 - (II, facing pp.18, 44, 102 and 105)

all signed and extensively inscribed, the drawings 7¾ x 11¼in. (19.7 x 28.6cm.) and smaller, in modern blue cloth portfolio and slipcase (24)

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Lot Essay

M'Cormick entered the Navy in 1823 as an Assistant Surgeon, serving in Hecla under Parry in 1827 and as Surgeon and Naturalist on the Erebus on James Clark Ross's Antarctic expedition, 1839-43. He made a boat expedition up the Wellington Channel in search of Franklin in 1852, returning to England on the Phoenix in 1853, and published his Voyages in London in 1884, illustrated with lithographs by Vincent Brooks after his own drawings (for which see lot 39.)

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