[GOLD RUSH]. The Book of Adventures

Philadelphia: Charles H. Davis, 1855 (first published 1854). Duodecimo, blind-embossed purple cloth, lettered in gilt to spine (faded), pp. 128, illustrated with wood-engravings; a very god copy.

Children’s adventure stories, including ‘Encounters with a boa constrictor’, ‘Ascent of the Wetterhorn’, ‘Attacks of the cult-fish’, ‘Perils of the Sperm-Whale fishery’ etc., as well as ‘The gold-mines of Australia’ – a grim picture of the crowded goldfields of Australia illustrated with a wood-engraving of the miners at work.

‘The climate is considered unhealthy for Europeans. The gold region is said to be thickly dotted with the graves of those, who, in the hope of becoming wealthy, periled their lives in a country of which they knew almost nothing, and sank under disease and disappointment’. 

‘Septimus Winner (May 11, 1827 – November 22, 1905) was an American songwriter of the 19th century. He used his own name, and also the pseudonyms Alice Hawthorne, Percy Guyer, Mark Mason, Apsley Street, and Paul Stenton. He was also a teacher, performer, and music publisher.’ – Wikipedia

The State Library of Victoria holds a copy of the 1854 edition, otherwise not held in Australian libraries.