For your consideration is this Rare First Edition of, "Across The Continent" by Samuel Bowles, 1865, Springfield, Mass.; New York: Samuel Bowles & Company; Hurd & Houghton. "A Summer's Journey to the Rocky Mountains, the Mormons, and the Pacific States, with Speaker Colfax" is an important account of a summer's travels through the American West undertaken by Samuel Bowles, the publisher of the Massachusetts' "Springfield Republican" and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Schuyler Colfax, Jr., who four years later would become the Vice-President of the U.S. under Ulysses Grant. Little more than a month after the conclusion of the Civil War, Bowles and Colfax traveled by rail 1,425 miles from Massachusetts to Missouri "thence a coach ride of two thousand miles before we meet the projecting arm of the California railways at Placerville. Traveling across the continent through Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, and thence back to San Francisco. They returned to the East via steamship and over land at the Isthmus of Panama arriving in New York in September, 1865. The book, comprised primarily of letters home, was published shortly before the end of that year. Some experiences highlighted in the book include his journey across the Rocky Mountains, his interactions with the Mormon people from northern Arizona to southwestern Idaho, and his accumulated experiences in the pacific state provinces. This book also includes his well documented fold-out colour map of stated areas of travel which was entered into the Library of Congress in 1865. The brown coloured cloth bound hardcover is in fair condition, scuffing and fading noted to cover. Intact pages exhibit age tanning and foxing throughout, measures 5"W x 7.75"L x 1.25"D, weight 1lb.