First edition of an important treatise on chronometry by Ernest Barthélémy Mouchez, who sailed as French astronomer, geographer and naval officer in the Capricieuse commanded by Roquemaurel. In his work he tried to improve surveying technique and he promoted the use of stationary observational instruments by the navy. The work contains extensive technical and methodological information on chronometry and the use of chronometric instruments, followed by observations made during the Capricieuse's circumnavigation with detailed notes on the Pacific (Marquesas Islands, Tahiti), Cochinchina, the Sunda Islands, and the coasts of China and Korea. Bound with two other valuable essays resulting from scientific expeditions along the coast of South America, notably Brazil, with the object to map the region more precisely. The second work for example discusses the longitudes of principal points along the Brazilian coast which would be used for a new map of the coastal line of Brazil, among others Paranagua, Cabo Frio, Ilhéus, Camamu, Morro de São Paulo, Bahia, Fernando de Noronha and Céara. It was extracted from Annales hydrographiques, 1863.
In very good condition. Ad 2-3: Garraux, Bibliographie brésilienne, pp. 202-3; cf. DSB IX, p. 551; not in Borba de Moraes; Sabin.