Von Troil’s compilation is the only contemporary printed book steming from Sir Joseph Banks’s pioneering scientfic expedition to Iceland, Banks's first and only expedition as indisputable leader. Having recently returned from the Pacific with Captain James Cook, but having just withdrawn from Cook’s proposed Second Voyage, Banks wrote in his manuscript ‘Iceland Journal’ (now at McGill) that the possibility of an independent voyage to the South Seas in 1773 encouraged him to keep his entourage together and employed ‘to the advancement of science’. Iceland was seldom visited and suggested itself as a suitable terra incognita accessible in the time available: "the whole face of the country new to the botanist and zoologist as well as the many volcanoes with which it is said to abound made it very desirable to explore." On this expedition Banks was accompanied by Daniel Solander, James Lind, and Tobern Bergman, among others. Digital facsimile from Linda Hall Library at this link. Translated into English as Letters on Iceland containing observations on the civil, literary, ecclesiastical, and natural history; antiquities, volcanoes, basaltes, hot springs; customs, dress, manners of the inhabitants ... made during a voyage undertaken in the year 1772, by Joseph Banks, Assisted by Dr. Solander, Dr. J. Lind, Dr. Uno Von Troil, and several other literary and ingenious gentlemen. Written by Uno von Troil. To which are added .... Professor Bergman's curious observations and chemical examination of the lava and other substances produced on the island. (London, 1780). Digital facsimile of the English translation from Google Books at this link.