xxiv, [25]-233 + [12] ad pp. Illustrated with 4 wood-engraved plates, including frontispiece with tissue-guard. 7½x4¾, original blind-stamped green cloth, spine lettered in gilt. First Edition.

"Touched with gold fever, first mate of the schooner 'John Allyne,' B.F. Bourne and twenty-five others set out from New Bedford, Massachusetts, on February 13, 1849. Bourne was captured by natives off of Cape Horn. He escaped after three months, boarded the ship 'Julius Pringle,' and arrived at San Francisco in February 1850. After three days in that 'mushroom city,' he headed for Sacramento and the mines. With badly blistered feet, he made a difficult journey trudging through the snow near Georgetown before joining his brothers in mining. This enterprise proved unsuccessful, and Bourne became seriously ill...Recovered, he headed back home via the Isthmus..." - Hill, Vol. I, pp. 360-61; Cowan II, p. 65; Sabin 6910.