Item 1 is a reward notice: An Act for giving a publick Reward for such Person or Persons, His Majesty's Subject or Subjects, as shall discover a North West Passage through Hudson's Streights, to the Western and Southern Ocean of America. The reward was for 20,000 pounds, a great sum of money when offered by King George II in 1745. Of course, the King was safe on his bet, though he would not have known it. No one could possibly collect as there is no outlet from Hudson's Bay that leads to the Pacific. $1,800.

Item 25 consists of 12 bound issues (Volume I, Issues 1-12, 1893-4) of the obscure periodical Around the World. It includes numerous articles on the Arctic, some from explorer Robert Peary (who 15 years later would be the first to reach the North Pole - though some dispute his claim) and his wife Josephine Diebitsch Peary. $400.

Bjarne Tokerud Bookseller may be reached at 250-381-2230 or bjarnetokerud@shaw.ca.