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Baer, K.M. Risunki k Issledovaniyu Kаspiiskogo Rybolowstva / Album of
Caspian fisheries. Published by the Ministry of Public Assets.
Saint-Petersburg, V. Bezobrazov’s Printing House, 1861, IV, 86. Most
R. Gundriser’s lithographs are in colour, less are continuous-tone. In
a morocco leather binding of the time, with gilt lettering on spine.
Colourful marble boards. Format: oblong grand folio, 36,5x51 cm. A
copy from the library of the Vestnik Rybnoy Birzhi (Journal of the
Fish House)
 Edition. The completeness of the set of pictures was
verified with the itemized description at the beginning of the atlas.
You won’t find such a fundamental work in the market nowadays and it
has never been in Russian antique book auctions. It is hardly found in
any bibliographical reference on natural history in the whole world. A
splendid copy of this fundamental and a rather rare edition on fishery
in the Caspian Sea. Numerous colourful and continuous-tone
lithographs, apart from their scientific importance, are also of
artistic value.
Rarity!
Karl Maximovich Baer [Baer, Karl Ernst von, 1792-1876], a great
Russian Estonian natural scientist. Born in Estlandia. Graduated in
Medicine from the Dorpat University. Worked for many years at
Königsberg University as Professor of Zoology and Anatomy. Since 1828
– Academician at Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences. The founder of
Embryology. His classical work «Ob istorii razvitiya zhivotnykh» (On
the history of evolution of animals) (1828-1837) was the forerunner of
the C. Darwin’s theory on the origin of species. Having moved to
Russia in 1834, Baer participated in several expeditions: in 1837 – in Novaya Zemlya, in 1839 – the Islands of the Finnish Bay, in 1840 – he
traveled to Lapland. Yet, what immortalized his name was his handling
of very practical problems on exploring and rationalization of
fisheries in the Chud Lake, and in the Caspian and Azov Seas. A
broad-scale research was made which embraced various geographical
issues. The most efficient and productive was his expedition to the
Caspian Sea which lasted, with small interruptions, for 4 years
(1853-1856). Robbery fishing by unauthorized companies in the Volga
estuary and the Caspian Sea, the main fish production area in the then
Russia, led to a catastrophic decline of fishing threatening by a loss
of the main fishing base (which is still the case). To fulfill his set
task ,Baer decided to carry out a preliminary detailed research of
hydrological and hydrobiological characteristics of the Caspian Sea
which had not been explored before. To do this, he crossed the sea in
several directions from Astrakhan to the Persian shores. He found out
that the reason for such decline in fishing was not in natural
degradation, but the robbery and irrational methods of fishing by
industrial companies whose interest was purely commercial and
lucrative. He called such primitive methods of fish processing «a mad
waste of natural resources». No fishing must be made before or during
spawning, nature is not a bottomless barrel, and therefore, there
should be fish reproduction by artificial methods. Baer called for
governmental control to be introduced for protection and restoration
of fish resources. Economically, a direct effect of those expeditions
was, in particular, a suggestion to eat the Caspian herring, which
would be normally used only for fat processing. Scientifically, the
result of Baer’s expeditions was a fundamental geographic description
of the Caspian Sea. In 1857, he released a statement suggesting that
rivers on the northern hemisphere would dig most on the right bank,
which would become steep, while those on the southern hemisphere would
do so on the left bank (the so called Baer’s Law). He is one of the
founders of the Russian Geographical Society. His other contribution
was his famous racial theory of the unity of the human race. There was
also Baer’s Science Medal and Science Award in his honour established
in 1864 which existed in Russia before revolution. He died in his home
land in 1876. |
