THE GOLD-MINES OF MIDIAN AND THE RUINED MIDIANITE CITIES. A Fortnight's Tour in North-western Arabia
(London: Keegan Paul & Co., 1878).
FIRST EDITION OF AN ESPECIALLY INTERESTING BOOK AND QUITE SCARCE IN THE ORIGINAL CLOTH. In the relentless pursuit of grand fortune in his waning years Burton traveled in November 1877 into the Empty Quarter of the Arabian Peninsula, following the natives' tales of "ruined towns once prosperous with dense populations, of quarries where King Solomon found gold for the walls of the Temple, his drinking vessels, and his lion throne, of turquoise mines..." (Rice, p. 433). What he brought back from this first trip (a second followed in October) was not an impressive amount of geological samples but notes"--notes which he quickly put together to form this book.
The book was extremely well received at publication, and went into two editions within the next year. Captain Burton returned to the area in October of the same year and from that journey came his two volume work THE LAND OF MIDIAN (REVISITED). An area of Arabia that Burton was particularly enamoured of, he always referred to this book on The Gold-Mines as a continuation of his great work on Medinah and Mecca which was penned after his first journey into the those most significant areas of the Arabian Peninsula. That work was published in 1855. Item #70129
First Edition. With fine black & white illustrations in text and a multi-folding map at the end of the book. 8vo, publisher s original red cloth gilt lettered and decorated in black on both the spine and covers, now housed in a solander protective case of green cloth over green crushed morocco at the fore-edges. xvi, 398. 32 ads pp. A scarce find in original cloth, internally quite clean and fresh but for some spotting to the prelims. The text-block in good order, the binding a bit shaken but strong and secure, some light rubbing to the head and tail of the spine panel and the extremities, half-title clipped across the upper portion, withal, a pleasing survival and a book that remains unrestored.