This is the first edition, first state of this "classic account of the first American attempt at settlement of the Pacific Coast" (Howes). Irving's history of John Jacob Astor's attempt to bring American fur trade to the Pacific was based on revised transcripts of the journals of Robert Stuart , Wilson Price Hunt and Ramsay Crooks. Among these were " journals and letters narrating expeditions by sea, and journeys to and fro across the Rocky Mountains by routes before untraveled, together with documents illustrative of savage and colonial life on the borders of the Pacific."

Included in the 2nd volume is the map Sketch of the routes of Hunt and Stuart. While there is not much detail, Wheat says, "for what it purports to be it is an excellent map." The title pages have a stamp of the "Philermenian Society" which was a Brown University Literary Society. First edition, with the copyright notice and "Henry W. Rees, Stereotyper" on the verso of the title-page of volume one. Volume 1 contains 285 pp. and volume 2 has 279 pp. Both volumes are bound in their original half leather with marbled paper boards. Gilt title on embossed spine.

References: Howes I-81; Wheat (TMW) #419.

Condition: B

The map has some light foxing and minor extraneous creasing near the folds, as well as several archivally repaired fold separations and short tears. The text pages are lightly foxed and the covers are somewhat worn, but the books are still quite presentable.