Southern Lights. The Official Account of the British Graham Land Expedition, 1934-1937. With Two Chapters by A. Stephenson and an Historical Introduction by Hugh Robert Mill
London, Chatto and Windus, 1938 (first edition).
Quarto, xvi, 296 pages with several maps and illustrations plus 81 pages of plates and 4 colour maps (3 folding).
Green cloth with a contrasting gilt-lettered cloth label on the spine; top edge dyed green, bottom edge uncut; endpapers a little tanned, with early ownership details on the front free endpaper; an excellent copy with the very good unclipped dustwrapper (unevenly sunned, with a crease across the front panel and some loss along the top edge, affecting a few letters of the first word in the title on the spine and front cover).
John Riddoch Rymill (1905-1968), polar explorer and farmer, was the leader of the expedition; he was born in Penola, South Australia, a grandson of the pioneer John Riddoch. 'Rymill's party proved that Graham Land was part of a continental extension (now the Antarctic Peninsula). They discovered a southern, permanently frozen channel, later named King George VI Sound, islanding Alexander I Land (now Alexander Island) and extending to the Bellingshausen Sea.... The B.G.L.E. logistics were innovative in Antarctica. Outstanding sledging with dogs, especially over sea ice, was backed by air support and depot laying; the use of a motor launch probing ahead to plot a route for "Penola" through uncharted, rock-strewn waters, was original and successful. The "Penola" covered 26,896 miles (43,283 km) mostly under sail' ('Australian Dictionary of Biography').
Item #145326
Price (AUD):
$450.00