[DUBOCAGE DE BLEVILLE (M. J.)]. Mémoires sur le port, la nav - Lot 529

[DUBOCAGE DE BLEVILLE (M. J.)]. Mémoires sur le port, la navigation, et le commerce du Havre-de-Grace; et sur quelques singularités de l'histoire naturelle des environs. Havre-de-Grace, Faure, 1753. 2 parts bound in 1 volume in-12, marbled calf, ornate ribbed spine, garnet marbled title page, red pages (period binding). First edition of this curious and unusual work on the Le Havre and Honfleur region and on the history of the port, but also, in the second part, on natural curiosities. "BOCAGE DE BLÉVILLE (Michel-Joseph du), navigator and hydrographer, born in Le Havre, Jan. 28, 1676. After completing a voyage of discovery and trade of all kinds with the South Sea islands, China and India, from 1707-1710, aboard the ship La Découverte, du Bocage returned to Le Havre, where he bought the land of Bléville, from which he took his name. This captain died in 1728 and was buried in the Bléville church. [...] The observations on qq. singularités de l'hist. natur. des environs du Havre, which form the 2nd part of this work, concern 1° a petrified bank found 1 km from Le Havre, at the foot of the côte de la Hève, where it extends over a length of about 1600 m. ; 2° on iron mines, mineral waters, English pebbles and others, found in the Pays de Caux ; 3° on the cockroach, called soldier, or hermit crab, which our coasts provide in abundance ; 4° on the petrifying fountain of Orcher, whose castle built at the mouth of the Seine, on a very steep cliff, is located opposite Honfleur. This vol. ends with a letter from R. P. Chansseaume, missionn. of China, on the vegetation of coralloids." Frère. A fine copy. (Frère I, 115-116.) Traces of former armorial bookplate. Ex-libris Maurice Heuzey.