Cambridge, MA, Museum of Comparative Zoology, 1903. Two volumes (text and atlas) in one. 4to (29.1 x 23.8 cm). Text: xxv, 168 pp.; numerous text illustrations; Atlas: 6 pp.; 82 maps, as follows: eight folded maps [numbered 1-8], three profiles [numbered 8a-c] and 71 photographic plates [numbered 9-79]. Later green buckram with gilt title on the spine. Original printed front wrappers bound in.

A fine copy of a classic study on the Maldives (Indian Ocean) coral reefs, written by the Swiss-American zoologist, marine biologist, and coral reef expert, Alexander Emmanuel Rodolphe Agassiz (1835-1910). The detailed, large maps show the island groups (atolls) with the names of many individual islands; and the soundings made by the Lucas Sounding Machine on board the research vessel, the steamer " Amra". The sounding apparatus was built for Agassiz in London. Most plates show views of different islands, islets, and banks. Published as the Museum's Memoirs, Volume XXIX. Provenance: inscribed in the top margin of the front free endpaper by the leading Conidae specialist of the second half of the 20th, and early years of the 21st century, Alan Jacob Kohn (1931-2022). A handwritten leaf with "Notes on Agassiz 1903" in Kohn's hand loosely inserted. Small repair to one wrapper and to a small paper flaw in one explanatory leaf (to plate 68, not affecting text); otherwise an excellent, complete copy, entirely free of foxing, which is rare. Cat. BM(NH) p. 7.