Quarto. 274pp, [4]. With an engraved frontispiece, numerous engraved illustrations in the text, and two terminal advertisement leaves. Original publisher's burgundy pictorial cloth, gilt. Slight rubbing to spine. Internally clean and crisp. Presentation copy, inscribed in ink to recto of FFEP; 'Eugene Cowles, Esq. / with the compliments of / the author.' With the booklabel of Eugene H. Cowles (1855-1892) to FEP, and a tipped-in A.L.S. dated 'Sept., 29, 1878' addressed to 'Editor of "Cleveland Leader", the news publication founded by Cowles' abolitionist father Edwin (1825-1890), thanking him for his kind review of the work.

A travelogue on the islands of the North Atlantic designed to meet the needs of a then growing travelling public compiled by American Statesman and Minister to Persia, Samuel Greene Wheeler Benjamin (1837-1914). The author selects those resorts which 'are becoming more and more the resort of the invalid and the pleasure seeker', these include; the Bahamas, the Azores, the Channel Islands, the Magdalen Islands, Madeira, Tenerife, Newfoundland, the Bermudas, and the Isle of Wight. Benjamin is quick to state that his selections have been made through diligent research and include no islands 'except such that are free from visitations of yellow fever or persistent malarial and zymotic epidemics.'