First edition. David Douglas. Edinburgh. 1882. Small quarto. viii, 83pp. Engraved frontispiece by John Le Conte (1816 - 1887) from an original by the author of the base of the remarkable cloud of June 26th 1881 and the old lava stream in the foreground. Spectroscopic plate. Original cloth, gilt to upper board and spine. Slightly faded to spine. A nice crisp copy. Provenance: Inscribed by the author to James M. Bryson. James McKay Bryson (1824 – 1894), Optical Instrument maker at 60 Princes Street, Edinburgh. Fellow Member of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts, the Photographic Society of Scotland, and for a time was Clockmaker for Scotland. Inventor of the Chromatic Teetotum in 1855. On 13 April 1858 at the Meeting of the Photographic Society of Scotland, James Bryson presented ·A Microscopic Camera ·A New form of Stereoscope. James McKay Bryson provided Charles Piazzi Smyth with scientific instruments for his researches and studies. The spectroscope used for the plate in this volume was made by Bryson. Both shared a passion for photography, and developed cameras for cloud photography. Piazzi Smyth’s “Teneriffe, An Astronomer's Experiment: Or, Specialities of a Residence Above The Clouds” 1858, was the first stereoscopic book ever published. The bookplate of Frederick B. Turnbull, by “HAW”, 1914, to front pastedown. Charles Piazzi Smyth FRSE FRS FRAS FRSSA (1819 – 1900) Astronomer Royal for Scotland 1846 to 1888; known as “The father of Mountain Astronomy”, he is also known for his studies of the Great Pyramid of Giza.