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Author: Hutchings, James Mason
Title: In the Heart of the Sierras: The Yo Semite Valley, both Historical and Descriptive: And Scenes by the Way. Big Tree Groves. The High Sierra, with its Magnificent Scenery, Ancient and Modern Glaciers, and other Objects of Interest; with Tables of Distances and Altitudes, Maps, etc.
Place Published: Yo Semite Valley & Oakland, CA
Publisher:The Old Cabin & Pacific Press Publishing House
Date Published: 1886
Description:

[4], xii, 13-496 pp. Illustrated with 29 inserted plates including frontispiece; 26 phototypes by Britton & Rey from photographs by George Fiske & others; also, 1 red plate of a snow plant, & 3 wood-engraved plates; 2 maps (1 folding, lithographed by Britton & Rey). (8vo), 21.5x15 cm (8½x5¾"), pictorial cloth stamped in gilt and brown, blindstamped bear on back cover. Later issue.

J.M. Hutchings (1820-1902), was a pioneer of the tourist industry in Yosemite. He was one of the first to visit there in winter and was Guardian to the Valley and the Mariposa Big Tree Grove between 1880 and 1884. According to Farquhar, In the Heart of the Sierras was Hutchings' crown publishing achievement and "...contains a great deal more...than an account of Hutchings' personal experiences; it covers more fully than any other work of its day every aspect of Yosemite Valley and the Big Trees that could by considered of general interest to visitors."

Light rubbing to cloth; folding map with tonin gat folds, short closed tears at stub at bottom edge; a nicer copy than usually encountered; very good.