Title: A Journey in Dutch Guiana.
Author: Ivan Sanderson.
Publisher: London: Royal Geographical Society, 1939.
Item is in ORIGINAL Condition, With Blue Wrappers – As Issued, Complete with All the Ads!!!
Notes & Condition: The author spent one year in Dutch Guiana on a zoological expedition to collect specimens and data for the British Museum (Natural History). The objectives were threefold, being the planning and constructing of a permanent outfit of gear for efficient travel in tropical and temperate climates, the testing of original field methods in comparison with established methods and the surveying of the local fauna.
Sanderson’s first four months were spent in Paramaribo, the port of arrival and capital of Dutch Guiana, the next three months penetrating the jungle country heading up the great rivers and the last three devoted to an investigation of the savannah belt and its forest areas. He provides a detailed account of the area’s varied geography; of Paramaribo and environs, recounting the party’s purchase of samples of the area’s live animals (at one point they had no less than 172 live animals living in their quarters); the inhabitants of Suriname – a place unlike any other, he suggests: “there is probably no other place in the world where large bodies of so many racial and sub-racial types live side by side.” Depictions of inhabitants include the “negroes;” the Caucasics – that is, the true Hollanders as well as the English and the Americans; the British Indians; the Jukas or “Boschnegers;” the Mongolians and the Surinaamers. Also features descriptions of the coastal area, Sanderson’s excursions up the Coppename river, the Para river, notes on results and an appendix comprising a list of native place names given in the official Dutch spelling.
Sanderson published three classics of nature writing: Animal Treasure (a report of an expedition to the jungles of then-British West Africa); Caribbean Treasure (an account of an expedition to Trinidad, Haiti, and Dutch Guyana (now Suriname), begun in late 1936 and ending in late 1938); and Living Treasure (an account of an expedition to Jamaica, the British Honduras (now Belize) and the Yucatan). Illustrated with Sanderson’s drawings, they are well-written and humorous accounts of his scientific expeditions, and anticipate later works by writer-naturalists such as Gerald Durrell.
Also included in this issue is a succinct report by Paul Zahl, entitled “Two Waterfalls in British Guiana”. The narrative is 2 pages, including an in-text sketch map and 2 specatcular photographic plates showing fall on the Uitshi river and Hunlen Falls.
Two reports in one complete issue of the Royal Geographical Society, altogether 25 pages, including 2 in-text sketch maps. Plus photographic plates. Original condition with blue wrappers, titles to front, and containing all the ads. This is a complete issue, seldom found in such good and original condition.
