MURRAY (Charles Adolphus), 7th Earl of Dunmore.
Scenes in Many Lands: Arctic to Equator.
A PICTORIAL RARITY, THE PAMIRS DEPICTED.
Murray commences his preface: “The accompanying reproduction, in Autotype, of rough pen and ink and water-coloured sketches, made mostly be by me at various times and in various places, constitute the first volume of a projected series of drawings, representing the result thirty-five years- travel in different parts of the world.” Howgego records his travels: “Dunmore’s inherited wealth provided the means for travel in African and the Arctic, but as an explorer he is best known for his journey through Central Asia. Starting from Rawalpindi in April 1892 and travelling by foot and on horseback, he crossed the Pamirs to arrive in Kashgar the continued west into the Ferghana valley of Russian Turkestan to reach Samarkand in January 1893. His account of the journey, The Parmirs published after his return to England in 1893, describes his 4000- kilometer journey, during which he scaled forty-one mountain passes and crossed sixty-nine rivers.”
The work commences with five images of Spitzbergen, before moving on to Hammerfest “the northernmost town in Europe”, Lapland and the Tana River (Finland). It then moves to the Circassian coast and the Caucasus, Georgia, and then Russian Central Asia and Chinese Turkestan before the large group depicting the Parmirs. Indeed, this is best understood as an illustrated volume to accompany Murray’s narrative The Parmirs. It finishes with images of India, Malaysia and Singapore.
Very rare. OCLC lists a single copy in National Library of Scotland. Howgego IV, M100.
