British Antarctic ("Terra Nova") Expedition, 1910. Natural History Reports. Geology vols I and II.

With 2 letters from raymond priestley to a fellow author. Scarce copy of the Geology section of the Natural History Museum's series of scientific reports which resulted from the Terra Nova expedition, with two manuscript letters by Raymond Priestley. The parts of the first volume were issued between 1914 and 1924, alongside the Zoology and Botany volumes, with the second volume coming later between 1954 and 1964.

Sir Raymond Edward Priestley (1886-1974) became a renowned geologist through his participation in Shackleton's Nimrod Expedition (1907–09) and Scott's Terra Nova Expedition (1910–1913). The two manuscript letters were written by Priestley to Walter Campbell Smith (1887-1988), the assistant in the minerals department of the Natural History Museum tasked with working on the Terra Nova collection. Priestley's first letter, sent in August 1963, commends Smith's work for giving the science of the Terra Nova 'a real place in the sun', and the second letter, sent in February of 1964, describes his joy in reading the completed second volume which was exclusively Smith's undertaking. Both letters contain a warmth of friendship between the two celebrated scientists.

The full titles and credits of the parts are as follows:
Vol I. No. 1: Antarctic Fossil Plants by A. C. Seward, pp.1-49, 1914.
Vol I. No. 2: Fish-Remains from the Upper Old Red Sandstone of Granite Harbour, Antarctica by Arthur Smith Woodward, pp.51-62, 1921.
Vol I. No. 3: Recent and Local Deposits of McMurdo Sound Region, by F. Debenham, pp.63-100, 1921.
Vol I. No. 4: The Sedimentary Rocks of South Victoria Land: 4a. by F. Debenham, 4b. by R. H. Rastall and R. E. Priestley, pp.101-130, 1921.
Vol I. No. 5: Metamorphic Rocks of South Victoria Land: 5a. by W. Campbell Smith and F. Debenham, 5b. by W. Campbell Smith and R. E. Priestley, pp.131-166, 1921.
Vol I. No. 6: The Plutonic and Hypabyssal Rocks of South Victoria Land by W. Campbell Smith, pp.167-227, 1924.
Vol II. No. 1: The Volcanic Rocks of Ross Archipelago by W. Campbell Smith, pp.1-107, 1954.
Vol II. No. 2: The Volcanic Rocks of Cape Adare, South Victoria Land by W. Campbell Smith, pp.109-150, 1959.
Vol II. No. 3: Volcanic Rocks of Cape Adare and Erratics from Terra Nova Bay Region, etc., by W. Campbell Smith, pp.151-206, 1964.

First edition, with two manuscript letters loosely inserted; two volumes in one, in nine parts, 4to (31 x 24 cm); complete with the separately issued preliminary leaves of vol I, 22 plates, 7 maps, 4 of which folding, 60 in-text figures and illustrations, each part with their own title and wrappers; publisher's cloth, gilt lettering to spine, all edges speckled red, a touch of mottling to boards, internally fine; [4], 227; 206pp.

Rosove, 292.