“A LION HAD BEEN PROWLING AROUND US DURING THE NIGHT”

JAMES, Frank Linsly. The Unknown Horn of Africa: An Exploration from Berbera to the Leopard River. With Additions by J. Godfrey Thrupp. The Map by W. D. James and Percy Aylmer. The Narrative Illustrations by Rose Hake, and the Drawings of the Fauna by K. Keuleman. London: George Philip & Son, 1888. Thick octavo, original gilt-stamped pictorial brown cloth, uncut and partially unopened. $4600.

First edition, with 23 full-page plates (eight finely hand-colored) of animals, birds, plants and tribal practices, and a large folding map of Province Ogadayn (1885) in rear pocket.

James led a four-month caravan from Berbera on the Gulf of Aden south through Somalia and the Harar Province of Ethiopia to the Scebeli River and return. This is the account of that journey— over 1,000 miles by camel and horse through hostile Somali country. With a long appendix, by various authors, describing the natural history of Somaliland. Illustrated with numerous in-text vignettes. Czech, 83. Armorial bookplate.

A few pinpoint spots to interior, only slight rubbing to original cloth, gilt quite bright. A handsome copy in near-fine condition.