This translation opens: "If Mr. James Starr will come to-morrow to the Aberfoyle coalmines, Dochart Pit, Yarrow shaft, a communication of an interesting nature will be made to him."

The Child of the Cavern; or Strange Doings Underground
1877
Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington
London

Pictorial Brown cloth (Gray cloth shown!)
Translated by W. H. G. Kingston (who also wrote the preface)
Published: October 1877

W H G Kingston Preface:
"The works of Jules Verne are too well known for the purity of their style, and the intense interest they excite in their readers, to require any commendation from me. One of his chied merits is the wonderful art with which he lays under contribution every branch of scinece and natural history, while he vividly describes, with minute exactness all parts of the world and its inhabitants. In the wild flights of his imagination, he carries his characters high above the clouds, sends them whirling through the air, driven by the howling tempest across foaming waves, or allows them to mount up towards the distant moon. Now he conducts them into the bowels of the earth, or down to the depths of old ocean.

For the last production of his fertile brain he has selected Scotland as the scene on which to display his unbounded powers of invention; and, in spite of the sober-minded character of its population, has by the magic power of his pen converted it into enchanted ground. He has called into existence a mine of fabulous wealth, and has placed in it a mysterious being endowned with superhuman powers, who performs wonders unsurpassed in the present prosaic age. Those who are unacquainted with the manners and customs of the Scotch cannot severely criticize the characteristics he assigns to them; and those who have resided in the land o'cakes will not fail to be highly amused with the pictures he draws of its people, though they differ not a little from those we have met with in the tales of the author of "Waverley," and give us impressions considerably at variance with such as we derive from other Scotch novelists of a later date.
One thing, however, is certain, that the readers of "The Child of the Cavern" will be as deeply interested in the extraordinary adventures of its gallant hero and fair heroine as they have been in those of the numerous Dramatis personae who play their parts in the almost countless numbers of the talented Frenchman's previous works - works now as well known and as much appreciated in England as they are in his native land.
W. H. G. K."

(Ed: This image is really the "re-issue of 1879,
Since "Volume I" mentioned)

This translation opens:
"If Mr. James Starr will present himself to-morrow at the Aberfoyle Coal mines, Doctor Pit, Yarow Well, he will receive a communication of an interesting nature."

Ed: I note that it actually starts: "Chapter I -Two Contradictory Letters - "Mr. J. R. Starr, 30 Canongate, Edinburgh: - If Mr. James Starr will present himself ..."

The Black Indies
(1877)
George Munro
New York

in wraps

Ed: see Editor Note below, BUT to be a true 1st edition, I think there needs to be NO mention of Volume 1!!!

Quarto edition of Munro's Seaside Library, Vol 1 No. 5
Published: May 1877

Ed: This is the first of many Jules Verne titles published by George Munro. In advertisements, this title is cited as: "Jules Verne's latest."

*** ED:  I am unsure how to ensure you have a "1st Edition" of this Black Indies quarto? Without the catalogue at the back, I don't know how you would identify an 1877 issue from a re-issue!!??
If this is truly Issue No 5 of the "new" Seaside Library, why is it identified as "Volume 1". Is George Munro thinking that far ahead to know he will have multiple volumes? OR Is that an indicator of a re-issue??
Looking at the Library of Congress copy (and they say published ?1877?), It is numbered from page 113 to page 140 plus a catalogue, that includes ALL the Seaside up to number 670. In the middle of the Catalogue, there is a Prospectus for 1879!! SO!! AGAIN: Without the Catalogue, how do you identify a First Edition?
COntinuing, on page 140, along with the "Seaside Library Prospectus" which lists the 1st 5 titles, at the bottom says: "Seaside Library No. 5 - A Single Number. 10 Cents. - Out Saturday, June 23.", and their address: "George Munro, publisher, (P.O. Box 5657.) 21, 13 (sic), and 25 Vanderwater St. N.Y.".
Also, on pages 115, 117, 119, 121, 123, 125, 127 & 129 on the top left it says No. 4, where this is issue No. 5!!!
I am pretty certain this is a "Re-Issue", but it includes all the 1st Edition details (Prospectus, / Coming Next / incorrect Vol 4...). George Munto, when Re-Issuing this number, simply reprinted what was issued originally, with no corrections or changes!!

Jules Verne Encyclopedia:
"By October 20, 1883, Porter and Coates published Underground City; or the Child of the Cavern, translated by W. H. G. Kingston. No Year appears on the title page, ... and 246 pages, fully illustrated, pictorial cloth, priced at $1.50."

Underground City or the Child of the Cavern
[1883]
Porter and Coates
Philadelphia

Translated by W. H. G. Kingston
Fully illustrated

green copy inscribed 1884