First edition, first state, the folding map without "Kane Sea" labelling the expanse between Smith Strait and Kennedy Channel: the appellation was inserted only after an American historian of Arctic exploration, Colonel Peter Force, wrote to the publishers demonstrating that Kane's discovery of the strait had been suppressed (see Elder, Biography of Elisha Kent Kane, pp. 229-30); copies also noted in a variant binding with the ship vignettes in gilt. "In a brief life of thirty-six years, mostly in ill health, Elisha Kent participated in two Arctic expeditions and by the time of his death in 1857 was regarded as a true American hero and one of the nation's most popular authors … Little went right in the second expedition [but] there were many notable achievements … The discoveries of Kennedy Channel, the Kane Basin, a record north of 80° 10'N, and the sighting of the Humboldt Glacier were important firsts for Kane.

First edition. 2 volumes, 8vo ( 22 × 14 cm, engraved vignette titles, engraved portrait frontispieces of Kane and Grinnell, 18 engraved plates with tissue guards, 3 maps, one of them folding, folding isothermal chart, and numerous wood engravings in the text, previous bookseller's stamps inside on several pages; bound in publisher's dark brown wave-grain cloth, gilt-lettered spine, decorative blind frames to boards, enclosing blind ship vignettes to front,some slight wear to the boards; overall a very good copy.

Books on Ice 3.9; Howgego III K3; NMM I 924; Sabin 37001.