Author: DANA, James D.
Title: Characteristics of Volcanoes, with contributions of facts and principles from the Hawaiian Islands.
Description: London, Sampson Low [1890]. Largish octavo half gilt morocco; xvi,399pp, 16 plates (four are folding maps, these mounted on linen at the time of binding), numerous illustrations through the text. Ex parliamentary library with their gilt crest on the front board and incorporated into the spine, no other markings; a few spots, a handsome copy. ¶ English edition using the American sheets with a cancel title. Almost sixty years of volcanic activity (so to speak) on the part of Dana have gone into this book - beginning with his ascent of Vesuvius in 1834, continuing with his first explorations of Hawaii in 1840 with the Wilkes Expedition right through to a second Hawaiian sojourn in 1887. This is, in part, a call for the attention of vulcanologists - a litany of what had been and what may be learned from the volcanoes of Hawaii that had not been learnt from better known favourites such as Vesuvius and Etna.

Keywords: science geology volcanoes vulcanism c19th travel Pacific Hawaii