A rare account of an expedition into the Blue Mountains by René Primevère Lesson (1794-1849), surgeon and naturalist on Louis Duperrey's circumnavigation on La Coquille, 1822-25.
Lesson recounts the expedition began with second in command and famous explorer in his own right, Jules Dumont d'Urville on 29 January 1824 to the Blue Mountains. It's worth noting that Gregory Blaxland's account of his 1813 crossing of the Blue Mountains had only been published the year prior. Indeed, he references their expedition on page 2.
In addition to his geological, botanical and ornithological observations here (for example, he quotes John Lewin), he adds a detailed description of the platypus as well as the Indigenous Australians they met. Noting that the "nègre-australe" is distinct to New South Wales, Lesson also describes some of the similarities with the people of Papua New Guinea, and New Caledonia.
Born in Rochefort, René Primevère Lesson was a famous French zoologist who joined the Rochefort Naval Medical School in 1809 and served on several campaigns. A Navy pharmacist, he was in charge of the botanical garden at Rochefort when he was appointed in 1822 to the crew of the corvette La Coquille, which sailed around the world under Duperrey's command until 1825. It was on this expedition that he became the first European to see the bird of paradise. Lesson made several contributions to the official account Voyage autour du Monde... sur la corvette La Coquille (1826-39) and published several monographs.
OCLC locates copies at NLA, SLVIC, and Paris only.
