Travels in the Steppes of the Caspian Sea, the Crimea, the Caucasus, etc

London, Chapman and Hall, 1847. 8vo. Full red calf with titles faded , raised bands to spine., lettered and ornamented in gilt, all marbled edges ; pp. viii, 436, hinges tender, light wear to extremities, marble endpapers. First English edition. Internally fine. Inscription to "Alfred Lace from his friend and Tutor"

What had been planned as a geological expedition turned into an ethnographic and sociological reconnaissance tour of Southern Russia and adjacent provinces. Ignace Xavier Morand Hommaire de Hell, an engineer who had built a suspension bridge in Istanbul and a lighthouse on the Black Sea coast for the Ottoman Empire travelled with his wife Adà le HÃriot, who contributed much to the narrative. A few years after Astolphe de Custine's sensational report on Russia had been smuggled out, Hommaire de Hell states that 'Our work is published under no man's patronage; we have kept ourselves independent of all extraneous influence; and in frankly pointing out what struck us as faulty in the social institutions of the Muscovite empire, we think we evince our gratitude for the hospitable treatment we received in Russia .