[A Catalogue of the Fossils and Minerals Collected in the District of St. Thomas.]
VENDRYES Henry. (1866.)
£1750.00
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APPARENTLY UNRECORDED SPANISH-TOWN IMPRINT
Catalogues 1-20 (from 15 cases). 8vo. Modern quarter morocco over paper-covered boards, spine gilt, partially unopened, lacking front wrapper of first issue. 128pp. Spanish Town, G. Henderson, N.d. but c.
Apparently unrecorded, this catalogue was surely printed in just a handful of numbers. It lists fossils and minerals collected in the parishes of St Thomas, St John, Portland, Port-Royal, St. Andrew, St. Mary, St. Catherine, Westmoreland, St James, Clarendon, Manchester, Hanover, Trelawny, St Ann, and St Elizabeth.
It was almost certainly published as a part of the 1859-66 geological survey of Jamaica, initially led by Lucas Barrett. The idea of a systematic survey was first suggested by governor Sir Henry Barkly in 1853. The government was eager to exploit the island's mineral wealth and a geological survey was an important first step.
In addition to collecting geological specimens, Henry Vendryes appears to have been a lawyer as well as acting as a translator of French and Spanish. In 1899, he published Systematic Catalogue of the Land and Fresh-water Shells of Jamaica.
Rare. Not in OCLC, COPAC or KVK. Chubb, L.J., “Lucas Barrett - A Biography” in Donovan, S.K., ed. Jamaican Rock Stars: the Geologists who Explored Jamaica (Boulder, 2010), p.29.
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Stock Code: 229266