Mission Scientifique au Mexique et Dans L'Amerique Centrale . . . Mission Scientifique au Mexique et dans L'Amerique Centrale. Geologie. Description des Anciennes Possessions Mexicaines du Nord. . . M DCCC LXXI

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Guillemin-Tarayre / 1871 / Mission Scientifique au Mexique et Dans L'Amerique Centrale . . . Mission Scientifique au Mexique et dans L'Amerique Centrale. Geologie. Description des Anciennes Possessions Mexicaines du Nord. . . M DCCC LXXI (Safe 4, 71366) (Folio) 36.5x28 cm (14 x11"). 216 pp. (text ends in midsentence on p. 216, as issued). With 20 lithographed and engraved maps, plans, profiles, and plates (some in color or on tinted grounds, several folding). A Rare French Scientific Exploration of the California & Nevada -- Mining - Geology -- Petroleum First edition of this single part of a lengthy, bibliographically complex set published by the French government, with the present part relating to geology and mining in California and Nevada. These reports were included in the larger work on Mexico by the Commission Scientifique du Mexique because California and Nevada were formerly part of Mexico. Mining in California and Nevada was of intense international interest at the time - in 1859 silver was discovered at the Comstock Lode in Virginia City, and thousands of miners, loggers, and traders rushed to the region and towns sprang up, necessitating a railroad between Virginia City and Truckee through the Washoe Valley. The work was published during France's ill-fated attempt to establish Imperialism in Mexico. Originally sent out under the shadow of the French Army, the work of the Scientific Mission is of monumental importance. The materials accumulated by M. Bocourt and his Fellow-Naturalists, were deposited in the National Museum of the Jardin des Plantes, and the elaboration of them entrusted to special workers in the different branches of science. In total, the work was issued in a number of volumes between 1870 and 1894. The maps in this work have been well appreciated in academic circles, but until recently had escaped the notice of modern collectors. As noted by Jennings: The next geological map of California deserving of mention in this chronological description is a remarkable one, and possesses a very interesting history. This map, prepared by Edmond Guillemin-Tarayre in 1867 and published in Paris in 1871, is but one of 17 beautiful plates accompanying an obscure volume entitled "Description des anciennes possessions. Mexicaines du nord, Mission Scientifique au Mexique et dane I'Amcrique Central, Geologie." This publication apparently Volume 2 of several volumes describing the geological, botanical, archeological, zoological, and linguistic researches of a French scientific mission to Mexico, California, and Nevada. The geology volume was the first to be published, and is confined to California and Nevada; however, it very strangely was left unfinished for the text stops abruptly after 216 pages, in the middle of a hyphenated word! It is interesting to note that this geologic map and volume on geology are not listed in the earliest bibliographies of geologic maps of California. For example, they are not mentioned in Marcou's "Catalog of geological maps of America" (U.S. G col. Survey Bull. No. 7) published in 1884, or Vodges' "Bibliography relating to the geology, paleontology, and mineral resources of California" (California State Mining Bur. Bull. No. 10) published in 1896. Although the U.S. Geological Survey's "Geologic literature on North America, 1785 to 1918", published in 1923, enters Guillemin's publications, and these are consequently picked up and relisted by later indexes, nothing could be found in the American literature about this geologist and this excellent scientific survey. The volume on geology (1871) is organized into two sections the first on Nevada, and the second (and unfinished part) on California. Beginning with geographical data on these states, succeeding chapters treat the geology, mining districts, and metallurg. N° de ref. del artículo 71366

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