Beschreibung
Octavo notebook, ca. 20,5x13,5 cm (8 x 5 ½ in). [3], 310, [1] pp. (numbered in ink in the left upper corners of the leaves), 25 blank leaves, 1 p. with notes at the rear. Text: pencil on lined paper. With over forty original pencil and watercolour maps and drawings in text (mostly numbered from "Sketch A" to "Sketch Av"), including four full-page maps. Period full vellum binding; marbled endpapers; upper and side edges marbled. Period ink and pencil notes on the front cover. Binding slightly rubbed and soiled, but overall a very good internally clean notebook with detailed sketches, many heightened in watercolour. Historically significant, original manuscript notebook, documenting the first circumnavigation and comprehensive mapping of Lake Bangweulu in northern Zambia ? one of the main wetlands systems of Central Africa, comprising the Lake itself, the Bangweulu Swamps and the floodplain. "The area has been designated as one of the world's most important wetlands by the Ramsar Convention and an "Important Bird Area" by BirdLife International" (Wikipedia). In 2021, the United Nations Environment Programme provided US$6 million to the Zambia government project to protect the Bagweulu wetland's unique ecosystems ( see more ) . The first European to visit Bangweulu Lake in 1868 was David Livingstone. In 1873 he died of fever in the Chupundu village on the edge of the Bangweulu flood plain, "which makes the southern shore of Lake Bangweolo almost classic to geographers" (Prefaratory Remarks by the President to: Weatherley, P. Circumnavigation of Lake Bangweolo// The Geographical Journal. Vol. 12, No. 3, Sept. 1898, p. 242). In 1883, Liet. of the French navy Victor Giraud visited the lake, but it was an English military officer and big game hunter, Captain Cecil Poulett Weatherley, who first circumnavigated it in the summer of 1896. "<?> his examinations of the north-western and western sides constitute new discoveries" (Prefaratory Remarks?, p. 243). During the second trip in 1898, Weatherley completed his survey of the lake, correcting mistakes in the calculations of geographical coordinates, and produced the first comprehensive map of the Bangweulu wetlands. He also rediscovered the site where Livingstone's heart was buried under a mpundu tree in Chipundu, which inspired the construction of the Livingstone Memorial on the site in 1899. Both Weatherley's voyages around the Bangweulu Lake and the adjacent Luapula River took place on board the steel boat "Vigilant," sent from England in sections and reconstructed on the Luapula River. Brief results of his expeditions, including the first detailed map of the Bangweulu Lake were published by the Royal Geographical Society: Weatherley, P. Circumnavigation of Lake Bangweolo// The Geographical Journal. Vol. 12, No. 3, Sept. 1898, pp. 241-259; Mr. Weatherley's Surveys in the Bangweulu Region/Monthly Record// The Geographical Journal. Vol. 14, No. 5, Nov. 1899, pp. 56-563; Mr. Weatherley's Map of Lake Bangweulu/Monthly Record// The Geographical Journal. Vol. 34, No. 1, Jul. 1909, pp. 86-88. Weatherley also donated to the RGS a series of original photographs taken in the Bangweulu wetlands (Forty-Five Photographs of British Central Africa, by Poulett Weatherley, Esq., 1898/ New Maps// The Geographical Journal. Vol. 19, No. 1, Jan. 1902, pp. 119-120). The Society's archive holds two of Weatherley's illustrated diaries and a folder with original watercolours, created during his travels in Central Africa and specifically the Lake Bangweulu region in ca. 1889-1899 ( see more ) . Our notebook evidently dates back to Weatherley's second voyage in the Bangweulu region in 1898, with additions and remarks most likely made in 1899 (see pp. 51, 270). The manuscript starts with the survey of the Ifunge Peninsula on the west side of the Bangweulu lake and proceeds with the circumnavigation of the lake, moving counterclockwise. The next points of the survey are: Kawende Country (Uchinda Marsh, Mia. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers MB64
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