TRAVELS IN THE ISLAND OF ICELAND

First edition: xvii, 483 pages, 1 folding plate and 3 folding tables, 8 hand coloured aquatints, 1 page map after the appendix, 2 plans, engravings in the text, 1 large folding map at the back of the book (clumsily folded), marbled end papers, inner gilt dentelles, full leather rebacked titled gilt on a black spine label, corners slightly bumped, a good copy.

George Steuart Mackenzie (1780–1848) was a mineralogist, he first became known to the scientific world in 1800, when he obtained a 'decisive proof of the identity of diamond with carbon' by a series of experiments on the formation of steel by the combination of diamonds with iron (Nicholson, Journal of Natural Philosophy, iv. 103–10). A few years later he became fellow of the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh, and ultimately president of the physical class of the latter.

The pupil and friend of Professor Robert Jameson, Mackenzie throughout his life devoted much time to the study of mineralogy and geology. His interest in those subjects led him in 1810 to undertake a journey to Iceland, when he was accompanied by Dr. (afterwards Sir Henry) Holland and Dr. Richard Bright. In 1811 was published the 'Travels in Iceland,' the joint production of the three travellers. To this work he contributed the narrative of the voyage and the travels, and the chapters on the mineralogy, rural economy, and commerce of the island. Although the scientific portions of the book have long been superseded, it contains much information of permanent interest on the social and economic condition of Iceland. It was favourably reviewed by Robert Southey (Quarterly Review, vii. 48–92). Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 35

Publisher: Edinburgh: Printed by Thomas Allan and Company, for Archibald Constable and Company. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown; Cadell & Davies; William Miller, and John Murray, London.]