First and only edition of the memories of Adolphe François Delessert (1809-1869) of his voyage to India. The first part is devoted to the voyage, and the second part, which is the most important, is devoted to the natural history of India, and contains 27 beautiful plates of birds and insects. Delessert was the nephew of the rich industrial Jules Paul Benjamin Delessert (1773-1847) to whom he dedicated this book. The Delessert family consisted of many travellers and writers on natural history. This voyage was made on an educational basis, and was, thanks to the richdom of Benjamin Delessert, not deprived of some luxury.
Delessert embarked on the 24th of April 1834 at Nantes, and after stopovers at Madeira and the Canaries, he arrived at Ile de France, where he learned many things about the Indian flora, fauna and customs. He sailed on to the Dutch East Indies, Calcutta, Bengali, Bombay, Goa, and studied during a long time the flora and the extremely variable climate of the Mount Nilgiri. On the 30th of April 1839 he arrived in France again, bringing with him large collections of mammals, birds, reptiles, fishes, insects, shells, plants and minerals
Spine partly detached, some plates browned and foxed, but otherwise in good condition. Chadenat 556 ("Très finement coloriées; ouvrage très important au point de vue de la zoologie"); Nissen, ZBI, 1067; Numa Broc, p. 131-2; Quatre siècles de Colonisation Francaise, 238.