The title refers to the physiographic province of the United States that reaches from eastern Utah to eastern California, a silent world of austere beauty, of hundreds of discrete high mountain ranges that are green with junipers and often white with snow. The terrain becomes the setting for a lyrical evocation of the science of geology, with important digressions into the plate-tectonics revolution and the history of the geologic time scale.

    A cumulative rhyme relating how Ki-pat brought rain to the drought-stricken Kapiti Plain. Verna Aardema has brought the original story closer to the English nursery rhyme by putting in a cumulative refrain and giving the tale the rhythm of “The House That Jack Built.”

    It pleases on two counts. It satisfies the curiosity of theinhabitants of a region, whether newcomers or old settlers, especially if noadequate history had existed before. It dispels myths, corrects old wives'tales. And, if the history is first-rate, it goes beyond a factual account ofpersons and places, the particularities of a region, and shows the significanceof these human happenings in a larger scheme of things, in this case theemergence of a new nation.Ellis's history succeeds on both counts. It is a delightful andauthoritative account of lore which not even St. Tammanyites may have heard of.Did you know, for example, that there was once a flourishing wine industry inSt. Tammany Parish? That local vineyards produced excellent red and whitewines, the red from Concord grapes, the white from Herbemont? Did you know thatin 1891 a rice crop of 50,000 barrels was harvested, half the entire output ofSouth Carolina? . . .Ellis has rendered this pleasant and authoritative history in a graceful andlively style and with a genuine affection for the people he writes about.Walker PercyFrom the Foreword

    He watched a tribe making stone axes and met a pygmy people who wore extraordinary bulbous hats made from their hair clippings and woven to their scalps. On the island of Pentecost he marvelled at the courage of the sensational land-divers who jumped head first from a tower over eighty feet high with vines tied round their ankles. On Tanna he observed a cargo cult and talked to its leader, and on Tonga he filmed the Royal Kava ceremony, the most important and sacred of all the surviving ancient rituals.David Attenborough describes Madagascar as "one of Nature's lumber rooms, a place where antique outmoded forms of life that have long since disappeared from the rest of the world still survive in isolation". Here he observed many species of lemur, including the enchanting snow-white sifakas and the 'dog-headed man', the indris, about whom there are many legends; he collected fragments of the largest eggs in the world laid by the now extinct Aepyornis, and saw the ritual of the turning the dead.Finally, in the Northern Territory of Australia he filmed the aborigines' way of life, examined the remarkable rock paintings which parallel the first drawings made by mankind, learnt about the legends in which they describe their myths of the creation of the world, and met an old man who lived a hermit's life in a remote part of the outback in an upturned water tank.Vivid descriptions, hilarious incidents, and extraordinary encounters makes this book superb family reading.

    Book by Friedman, John Block

    Drawing upon the original journals and reports, Morgan tells his story largely in terms of individuals, interweaving portraits of well-known historical figures with those who are more obscure but who have a special significance.Journalist and historian Murray Morgan (1916-2000) was the author of more than twenty books, including Skid Road: An Informal Portrait of Seattle and The Last Wilderness. He worked for Time magazine, the New York Herald Tribune, and CBS News before returning to Washington where he taught at Tacoma Community College and for fifteen years hosted the early morning radio show "Our Town, Our World."

    The birds, fish, and animals that share the cape's fragile ecology on any given summer day with the human residents are described with the fresh eye of a first-rate nature writer.

    Perfect for the backpack or glove compartment, beautiful full-color photographs make plant identification easy for even the novice naturalist, and recently updated botanical information will be appreciated by the more experienced. Historical uses, plant dimensions and relationships to other plants and animals are also part of the informative text accompanying each photograph. The book's index lists both common and scientific names for easy reference.

    Along the Rim is the essential viewpoint-by-viewpoint guide to the South Rim, with seams of history, geology, and natural history winding through the text. Spectacular photographs showcase the scenic grandeur and the historic structures unique to the national park. This all-new edition of the classic book includes the latest information, new viewpoints and road routes, new photographs, and much more.

    A compilation of 255 brief articles on East Tennessee people, places, institutions, events, and other subjects, from James Agee to Alvin York, including country music, Ford Loudoun, and the Scopes trial.

    America began in Maine, and this fascinating, fact-filled story, set in the islands off the coast of Maine,tell the story of those early years of fishing boats from Europe, of the Natives, & then the settlers.

    The CULTURAL ATLAS series aims to evoke the spirit and vitality of the world's great civilisations, past and present, through photography, maps and supporting text.

    Bauer challenges widely held views about economic development, colonialism, the foreign aid process, the goal of egalitarianism and the population explosion.

    Most notably, the latest research finds that microbes have a more direct impact on the transformation of oxidizable and reducible minerals than was previously believed. Following in the footsteps of its prior editions, Geomicrobiology, Fifth Edition serves as an introduction to this globally pertinent field and as an up-to-date reference reflecting recent groundbreaking advances. Includes an Array of Detailed Illustrations Authored by two of the leading authorities in the field, this book illuminates the processes by which bacteria catalyze geomicrobial reactions. Generously laden with tables, graphics, diagrams, photographs, and illustrations, this all-encompassing reference examines the geomicrobial aspects of a wide range of minerals, including aluminum- and arsenic-containing minerals, and various fossil fuels. Examines Geomicrobial Interactions with: Silicon Phosphorus Nitrogen Arsenic Polonium Plutonium Manganese Antimony Chromium Molybdenum Vanadium Uranium Iron One of life's great mysteries is how it sustains itself even in seemingly inhospitable environments, such as the deep subsurface. The authors anticipate that as mechanistic molecular approaches are increasingly applied to diverse problems in geomicrobiology, this and other fundamental puzzles will be resolved.