CENTRAL ASIA. - Nikolai PREJEVALSKY. Mongolia, the Tangut Country, and the Solitudes of Northern Tibet, Being a Narrative of Three Years' Travel in Eastern High Asia… translated by E. Delmar Morgan. London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, 1876. 2 vols., first edition, 8vo (221 x 137mm.) Photographic portrait frontispiece with tissue-guard, 12 wood-engraved plates, illustrations within the text. (Toning, lacking map and front and rear blanks.) Later red half morocco over marbled paper boards, gilt lettering to spines, with original cloth covers mounted to front pastedowns, including the original spine tipped-in to volume two (slight fading to spines, endpapers replaced). Note: travelling through areas that were then unknown to the West, Prejevalsky's works were a significant contribution to the exploration of Central and Eastern Asia, including its flora and fauna. Later, there were persistent but finally unsubstantiated rumours that he was the biological father of Josef Stalin (2).