There have been other wonderful reviews written about this book already. All I can say is this book is so inspiring for those of us who always wanted to be athletic, but thought our chance had passed us by. I'm a 35 year old, stay at home, slightly plump mom. I've always admired runners, I always wanted to be one. But the truth is, I suck at running. This book gave me something wonderful. It gave me hope. It's a book that says so what if you suck, so what if you're slow, so what if the neighbors kid runs faster than you, and that kid runs with crutches. It's okay! If you are getting out there and putting one foot in front of the other, you're a runner!

I've been running for five months now. And I don't think I would have ever had the courage to step outside my door, take a deep breath and start jogging without this book

John's talent is, as one of the other reviews mentioned, getting "into the head" of the beginning runner. Having been there, and having dealt with many of the issues that a new runner deals with (both psychologically and physically), John certainly speaks from experience. While I am currently training for my third marathon and have been running a few years, I still make use of John's advice. I am definitely contemplating buying a copy of this book for friends of mine who want to start running but need the extra psychological boost. John really knows how to tell a story. I laughed. I cried. Mostly, I *identified.* Nice to know that we as penguins are not alone in the universe.

Do you enjoy "The Penguin Chronicles", a monthly column in Runner's World? The column's author, John "The Penguin" Bingham, now has a book out to complement the column. The book is entitled "The Courage to Start : A Guide to Running for Your Life."

This book is a must read for runners of all ability levels, from beginning runners to those who have been running for decades. Bingham gives practical advice to beginning runners, as well as showing how running transcends from a physical activity to a self-discovery of yourself. His revelations are insightful and motivational. Once you start reading this book, you will not be able to put it down.

Bingham began running in 1992 as a 43-year-old, 240-pound, couch potato. His first run consisted of sprinting down his driveway for about 30 seconds. That was all his legs, lungs and ego could take. But unlike many other times in his life when he had given up, he didn't quit this time. For some reason he stuck with running, and managed to run ¼ mile, then ½ mile, a mile, and increasingly more. As the months passed and he shed the excess weight, he found himself running 5Ks, 10Ks, half marathons, and eventually, full marathons.

He first began to tell his story on the internet via the Dead Runners Society (DRS). He sent out an e-mail telling about a race where he nearly finished last, but was finding himself a happier and healthier person because of running. Much to his surprise, he received responses from readers that said he had told their stories. They said he had managed to put into words what they were feeling about themselves, and about the metamorphosis that running was causing in their lives.

From these initial e-mails, "The Penguin Chronicles" was born. First it was a monthly e-mail on the DRS, and then Bingham set up a web site to host his columns. Eventually, Runner's World became aware of his columns, and in May of 1996, the column became a regular part of the magazine. It appears near the back of the magazine each month, a comfortable place for the many back-of-the-packers that are touched the most by his writings. The column has generated a huge following as runners from around the world find Bingham's words to be entertaining, inspirational, down-to-earth, and humorous.

Hoping to share his joy of running with other runners around the county, Bingham set out on the Penguin Tour in the summer of 1997. He traveled by motorcycle for eight weeks and visited runners from coast to coast. Bingham did another Penguin Tour in the summer of 1998, this time traveling by car and logging more than 14,000 miles over three months. On each stop during his trips, he found others who share the joy of running, and who discovered themselves via running. He found people who had moved past the self-imposed limitations that society places on us. After running with both new and veteran runners, Bingham found how little difference there was between them. At the start of his 1997 trip, he thought his story was unique, but by the end, he realized he was just one of many who had found themselves via running. His solitude was replaced by a sense of belonging.

In "The Courage To Start," Bingham shares his experiences with us. He shares the metamorphosis that he has gone through because of running. He shares his joy, happiness, and humor. This book will make you think, smile, cheer, and perhaps will bring tears of joy and courage. Don't walk or drive to your favorite bookstore, but run and pick up a copy today. Get one for yourself, and another to give to a friend. Share the joy of running with others.

This glossy covered handbook is a treasure trove of information aimed at the beginner and amatuer astronomer. The quality of the production is what impressives me most. Wonderful diagrams and photographs throughout compliment informative text. The sky charts are easily accessible and make for a ready reference when identifying constellations. The other chapters include "Skywatching through the ages", "Stars and Galaxies", "Skywatching tools and techniques", "Understanding the changing sky", "A tour of the solar system" and "Probing the universe". This book would make an ideal gift for persons just starting out in astronomy, as well as the more experienced. Highly recommended and a bargain price to boot.

This richly illustrated and clearly written book is a pleasure to read. Its author, David Levy, (discoverer of many comets, including Shoemaker-Levy which impacted Jupiter in 1994)is one of the great amauteur astronmers, and communicates his love of the heavens well. The star charts are done by Wil Tirion, the foremost celestial cartographer and author of many important sky atlases.

The book itself starts with a valuable historical perspective, discussing ancient astronomy and classical and modern astronomers. It progresses through a presentation of our place in the solar system and the universe, and discussons of planetary and deep sky objects. Various types of instruments for observing are also discussed. Finally, there is a section on each of the constellations, and the objects within them, enriched by historical information and even a guide to pronouncing some of the Arabic and Latin tongue-twisters one encounters.

The quality of the publication is first-rate. The illustrations range from ancient Chinese star charts through medievil earth-centric maps to images from the Hubble space telescope.

This is a book that will capture your interest, and supply many hours of pleasurable perusing on cloudy nights. The only drawback it that its hardcover, fairly thick format makes it less that ideal for the field.

I just bought this book and found it very easy to read, as well as helpful with using my brand new telescope.
It starts off by giving a very entertaing general history of astronomy, with plenty of illustrations.
It then covers astronomy concepts, such as star types, azimuth, etc. Also included is a section on telescopes.
Then it has 12 or so full scale maps of the sky, for every time of the year in both southern and northern hemispheres.
The best section is the constellation section. It has at least one page for each constellation, with a map showing a detalied view of it and surrounding stars/clusters/galaxies. It gives the history of the constellation, other interesting objects to look for nearby, and a photograph showing what the constellation really looks like (without the lines connecting the stars). Very helpful.

This classic guide was the first of its type, and thus probably got more people into birding than any other book. Peterson uses ink drawings to show the important "field marks" for identifying species. The downside to these drawings is that they tend to idealize the birds, showing them in perfect postures and making the field marks more prominent than they really are. Many competitors, such as the Audubon Guide and the Stokes Guide, use photographs instead. Photographs give a more accurate portrayal of the subtleties of color and pattern in plumage, but there are always those poor shots in a photographic guide that are blurry or show the bird at a bad angle. Whether you decide that a guide based on drawings or photographs is best for you, I would strongly suggest that you pick up an audio recording of birdsongs, such as "Birding by Ear," or the "Field Guide to Eastern/Central Bird Songs," both put out by Peterson's. As any experienced birder will tell you, the ear is just as important as the eye, especially in summer, when birds are often hidden by foliage.

The Peterson Field Guide to Eastern Birds is the best such guide you will find. The nice thing about birds and birding is that there are few enough species out there that you can get virtually all of them in one regional guide.

This book is outstanding. It relies on illustrations rather than photographs to show markings and other details used to ID birds in the field. I find that photos are often sub-standard, not showing characters essential for identifying birds due to the position of the bird, markings of the individual chosen for inclusion in the book, etc.

In this book each entry includes a bird's common and scientific names, a brief physical description of the body and coloration, a drawing(s) of the bird, a brief description of habitats where they are likely to be seen, a blip about their geographic distribution, notes on their song, and reference to similar species (if any). The entry also refers the reader to a map number that shows the summer and winter ranges for each bird.

This is "the bird book" to have for birds that live east of the Rockies for the novice and experienced birder alike. If you've never had much luck figuring out which birds you are looking at try this book.

5 stars all the way!

Note: if you travel much throughout the USA, you ought to pick up the Peterson Guide to Western Birds as well -- it is the sister book to this one. With both of those books in hand you will be in good birding shape.

Alan Holyoak, Dept of Biology, Manchester College, IN

I looked at nine or ten bird books over the weekend before finally deciding on this one. I like it's compact size, durable cover and it's very complete index. The most important reason for my decision, however, is the fact that it shows pictures of both male and female birds where the female bird's plummage and head differ from that of the male. None of the other books I checked showed female birds or only showed them in very rare instances. I also like this book because it shows most birds in both standing or swimming positions and also in flight. There are also occasional drawings of chicks.

The text that accompanies the pictures is necessarily brief but covers: Latin and common names, description, food, range, migratory pattern, habitat, voice and similar species. Also included is a "Systematic Checklist" so you can keep a "life list" of all the birds you've seen. There is a guide to identifying birds by visual categories (swimmers, birds of prey, waders, perching birds, etc), size, tail and wing patterns. The last part of the book contains maps illustrating each bird's range which makes it easy to compare the habitat of, for example, an Olive-Sided Flycatcher with an Acadian Flycatcher.

Obviously this is a guidebook and not the type of book you sit down and read through, but I have found myself reading the entries for the often amusing "voice" sections. Here's the one for the Chestnut-Sided Warbler: "Song, similar to Yellow Warbler's; 'see see see see Miss Beech'er' or 'pleased pleased pleased to meet'cha;' penultimate note accented, last note dropping." Hey, someone who knows what "penultimate" really means!

This book is by far the best book. Ever written on survival in the wilderness. You make it so easy. That even a small child can understand it. The McPhersons are very talented. It is the only book. That I have read from cover to cover. Without ever putting it down. I have made shelter, fire, cordage, arrow heads, baskets and brain tanning skins. I have only read the book the one time before it was stolen. The details is so simple. It is the only book. That starts at the beginning. From an amature point of view. If you are a true believer in the wilderness as I am. Even if you want to make primative crafts. this book is a must. My 2 daughters are even making things from the book. They were 7 and 9 years old when they started. You can even make the items quicker. Than you could from another book. I even get to spent more quality time with my daughters. Now that they are doing the same as me. For that alone I would have paid a lot more for the book. Thank you McPhersons.

Hands down this is the best survival book anywhere. The difference between this book and the majority of survival skills books is that most books will talk about why you should make a waterproof shelter and discuss the building of a waterproof shelter, but they won't tell you EXACTLY HOW to build it. If you read this book, you will be able to tan buckskin, construct baskets, make primitive pots, make effective and simple bows, make cordage, construct semi-permanent shelters, flintknapp basic tools, start fires from natural materials and much more.

This book is not about "surviving," rather it's about "thriving" in a wilderness situation. The McPhersons have written the best and easiest to read book you can find anywhere.

We liked this book so much we made it the book of the month at RFS Online for August 1999.

This book tells everything you need to know in order to survive in the wild. I've read over 20 books on wilderness survival and primitive living, and McPherson's book is by far the best one out there. I lived off the land in the Alaskan bush and greatly appreciate all the John has done to help me accomplish that. My only suggestion is that when "making" fire with a bow and drill, you MUST relieve pressure a little when the smoke starts billowing so that you'll kick the ember out onto the tinder. Kudos to John McPherson!

This book was written in 1979. The text and photographs were excellent, although the range maps were so small as to be useless, and the common names were the awkwardly academic types used in the first half of the last century. Supposedly, this book was updated in 1997. The text is still good, as are the photographs, but the common names still have not been corrected, the range maps are still too small, and over 70 new species that are now recognized from North America are missing from this book. This Audubon Guide is out-dated. Time to write a new one, with standard common names, modern taxonomy (drop the subspecies), and maybe some new photographs. Not recommended. Get the Peterson Guide. It may be a decade old, but its newer than this book.

The photos which illustrate this book are organized in such a way that one does not have to be familiar with reptiles and amphibians to make resonably accurate field identifications. For instance, the photographs of striped snakes are grouped together so that you can easily check for that matches the animal you have found.

The text and range map section gives much valuable information as to habitat and behavior as well as breeding and the size of neonates as well as adults.

This field guide is really interesting!!! It shows all reptiles and amphibians of North America! The photos are in full color and I've identified several herps with this guide without any difficulties!!! Although this field guide was made a while ago, it still looks it's been made in these days! It's good as national audubon society field guide to birds of western region, which is one of my favorites. I've had this book for nearly 2 years, and it still looks new as ever. The informations are very interesting if you read them. It's easy use, colorful and interesting. So if you're interested in American herps, get this guide right now.

As a Texan, I found this book to be a wonderful heartfelt tribute to Mr. Graves love of the Brazos River which included a lot of local history. I formerly lived in that area and have also canoed on the river and so I enjoyed his thoughts very much. I now live in the Hill Country and he wrote a book called "From A Limestone Ledge" that deals with his ruminations on life in our area! It is a pretty good one too! I agree that sometimes he gets a little "wordy" but I think it is still worth reading!

A great story that incorporates history, the outdoors, and philosophy. With the rugged country of the upper Brazos river as his backdrop, Graves takes you on an enjoyable journey that you hope will never end. You hear tales of the "Old West" and modern Texas as well. Graves' thoughts as he travels alone on the Brazos are classic for their insight and humor. I highly reccomend this book to all Texans, or anyone who wants to feel like a Texan for a while. I'm buying another Graves book soon.

I live 25 miles from the spot on the Brazos river where John Graves begins his tale. I have floated this section of the river many times. Reading this book before making the trip makes the float immeasurably more interesting. Each time you come to a certain spot or bend in the river, you recall the tale the author related about the history surrounding that particular spot. This is a great book for anyone who has ever floated or would like to float this section of the Brazos river.

A fairly detailed investigation and explanation of three locations where Man is attempting to prevent the course of Nature. The first, the attempt, so far successful, to prevent the Mississippi from changing its exit to the Gulf (it wants to go through the Atchafalaya River, substantially shorter and more attractive to the water), which change would utterly negate the entire economic geography of lower Louisiana. The second, the use of seawater pumped by the hundreds of thousands of gallons onto fresh, hot lava, to prevent said lava from overrunning and destroying the harbour and town of Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland. The third, the ongoing attempt to preserve Los Angeles from the self-destruction of the San Gabriel Mountains. All three goals are fully understandable in economic terms; what is not so clear, at least with the first and third, is how long the effort can be kept up. McPhee makes a good case that in human times, not geologic, Nature will win in both cases. One leaves the book with a feeling of excitement and pleasure in the Icelandic battle, a wonder at the power of the Mississippi and the stubbornness of the Army Corps of Engineers, and a sense of amazement at the futility and blindness of people who continue to live under the San Gabriels and hold the City liable for their foolish choices.

"Whenever you try to control nature, you've got one strike against you." pg. 13

This book tells 3 informative true stories of man's attempts to control nature. The Mississippi River, a massive lava flow in Iceland, and the incredibly powerful debris flows of the San Gabriel Mountains.

The first story describes in vivid detail attempts to control the Mississippi River from taking a new course... Atchafalaya. If the river takes this new route, say goodbye to New Orleans, B.F. Goodrich, E.I. du Pont, Uniroyal, Monsanto, Exxon, Mobil, Texaco, Shell and Union Carbide just to name a few. Four major floods in 10 years and 32 disastrous crevasses in a single spring weren't enough to suggest to the Army Corps of Engineers that levees alone might never be able to handle the job of controlling the river!

The second true story involves Heimay, a volcano that dumped enough lava in 1973 alone that would have been enough to envelop New York's entire financial district, with only the tops of the World Trade Center towers sticking out like ski huts! Will pumping 11,500,000 gallons of sea water a day on the flow be enough to save the harbor from being closed off? Find out! Also find out what I mean when I say McPhee decided to "pissa a hraunid"! :) The ending to this story will surprise you in more way than one!

The last story involves the mighty San Gabriel Mountains, with average slopes of 65-70% grade, climbing faster than almost any mountain chain in the world, and dumping 7 tons of regolith each year, that threaten Angelinos (L.A.)! Drought, fire, and flood; The real seasons in Los Angeles, and instead of the occasional storm, we get the occasional Earthquake! Will more than 2,000 miles of underground conduits, concrete-lined open stream channels, and an army of debris basins be enough to stop the beast? If it does it does it at the expense of the beaches! If it doesn't?... It does it at the expense of the beaches anyway! Find out why in this great book!

You'll learn of lot of interesting facts while at the same time get a great story of the battle of all battles! Man against nature!

Only problems with the book: There is no such animal as a mudslide. Mud flows! And Earth is not spelled with a lower case and it isn't "the Earth", its just Earth. You don't say "the Mars" or "the Jupiter", so why say "the Earth"?! My worthless pet peeves... :)

The Control of Nature is a collection of three long esssays about people trying to engineer their way around forces of nature. The first one about control of the Mississippi river to keep it in the current streambed, the second about anticipating volcanic activity in Iceland and the last one dealing with the literal moving of mountains as Los Angeles population pressure pushes people to bulid in the San Gaberial Mountains of California.

McPhee, as always, tries to stay in the background and let the participants speak on the page, but there is no mistaking his memorably vivid descriptions of people or nature. His prose are first rate with an eye for compelling detail.

The book itself is a quick, thrilling read that leaves the reader with a better understanding of unsung heroes and follies.

My favorite McPhee. A warning about some of McPhee's other books: My eyes seem to always glaze over when I attempt one of his "rock talk" full length books on geology.

Comparing this work to that of his father's in unfair. Norman Maclean wrote with the introspective style of a novelist while John Maclean writes with the who, what, when,where,& why of a seasoned journalist. FIRE ON THE MOUNTIAN is a well researched, straight forward, and hard hitting which reflects John Maclean's life as a highly regarded newspaper reporter. This book is a great read and should appeal to a wide spectrum of readers. It should also be required reading for every wildlands firefighter in the country.

This is one of those books that not only tells a riveting story of the courage of those who have to do dangerous work, but also the price that they have to pay when there is incompetence in those who direct them. The incorrectly named South Canyon fire on Storm King Mountain ultimately cost the lives of 14 wildland firefighters and their story is well worth the time spent reading this book. The lives of the smokejumpers, the hot shots, and helitacks who died fighting the fire need no finer memorial than this book. It was obviously done by a man who respected them, their work and their courage. The brotherhood of those who share dangerous work is vividly portrayed and makes the loss seem all the greater. This is a very, very fine book. I would like to see it filmed, but I doubt even Hollywood could do it justice.

John Maclean's "FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN" is subtitled "The True Story of The South Canyon Fire," and it is indeed the true story. Because the truth about what happened on that awful day in 1994 is so convoluted, so complex and multi-layered, and so strewn with conflicting viewpoints and cumulative errors and circumstances, writing the true story would have been impossible for anyone intimately involved with the fire. Maclean, however, brings his formidable background as a 30-year journalist to the story, and he makes the setting, the background, and the tragedy come alive for his readers.

With meticulous attention to detail and the unflagging search for facts that only a professional journalist can bring to bear, Maclean waded through stacks and years of documents, reports, interviews, and background material to produce a book that exceeded all expectations. The subjects of the book - wildland firefighters and wildland fire managers in state and federal land management agencies - nearly all agree that it's an accurate portrayal of both the South Canyon Fire and also the world of wildland fire. It's honest, it's well researched, and it's a compellingly good read. It explains and answers the many questions that nagged those of us in fire after the 1994 season.

If you're in fire, or you know someone who is, this book is mandatory.

This book helps beginers understand what triathlon is about and is a perfect intro to training for a sprint distance event. First timers will probably need more specific books if they want to train for olympic distance triathlons and sharpen their technical skills (especially for swimming where I would recommend Total Immersion: the revolutionary way to swim better, faster, and easier by T.Laughlin and J.Delves). This book made me love triathlon! I recommend it to anybody who wants to start in multisports.

As the name implies, and the introduction states, this book is for the novice. It is excellent for that purpose. It provides a lot of encouragement and basic advice. If you haven't run a triathlon, this is a great place to start. Other books on triathlon are more technical and may be intimidating. Triathlon 101 should also benefit someone who has tried one or two triathalons and wants to learn how to train smarter. But an experienced person would probably find the content too light.

Triathlon 101 provides minimal details about equipment and technique. Rather it focuses on encouraging and training novices. The recommended training schedules are applicable to all levels but are most detailed for the beginner. The focus is on injury prevention through gradual increases in intensity. The book has many sidebars which chronical stories of people who have over come adversity to move on to become leading ironman triathletes.

This is a great introductory book. After completing one sprint distance triathlon, I read this book. It gives great beginner's training advice from what equipment to buy to how to base train for each event. Everything that you would need to know in order to enter into triathlon training and competition is contained in Triathlon 101. It does seem like it would be too basic for the experienced triathlete, but for a beginner, it is perfect. There is an excellent training schedule for both a sprint and an olympic distance triathlon. There are also blank training log sheets and an appendix for more resources on the sport.

Encounters with the Archdruid by John McPhee was an interesting book. We read it as part of our AP Environmental Science class. Three developers encounter Dave Brower, a conservationist with the Sierra Club. The reading was easy, but at times it was hard to follow because McPhee often jumps around and talks about the scientists' families. It was often repetitive because the developers and the conservationist argue about the same issues all the time. One of the strongest points of the novel is the description of the wilderness. It is very detailed and really gives the reader a sense of actually being there. Overall, the book is unbiased. It offers people the opportunity to explore both sides of environmental issues. It's a good book to read if you're really in the mood to read it, but it's not something most people would pick up and read. -GHHS AP Environmental Students

This was the book that introduced me to John McPhee (I grew up around the corner from Dave Brower)and it made me a lifelong fan of McPhees remarkable insights and abilities as a reporter. Here he takes Brower -probably the leading voice for landscape conservation in the second half of the 20th century- and puts him Up Close and Personal with three very remarkable antagonists: the greatest Dam builder in North America, the developer of Hilton Head, and with a mining engineer who has "an affinity for beds" -but has managed to spend nearly 8 years in total sleeping rough in search of minerals world-wide. What is most intriguing about this book is that one comes away with an appreciation of the complexities surrounding environmental issues. This is no polemic or one-sided rant, rather McPhee shows us the strengths and weaknesses of each of his characters, and by weaving the personal in with the political we are left to make up our own minds just who are the heroes and who the villains. Recently I used this book in an Environmental Lit. class & to my surprise about half of the students had never heard of Brower (hence the title of my review. In spite of this they were all captured by the artful transparency of McPhee's prose -they were on that raft with Dominy & Brower, they went up that mountain, they walked that beach, and most important, they had that conversation. Thirty years after its publication this book still has the zip to draw its reader in. Regardless of your position on Things Environmental, I encourage you to give this a good read.

As the other reviewers here have noted, this is John McPhee's superb recounting of three episodes in the life of famous environmental activist David Brower. The three people he encounters are a geologist, a land developer, and a dam builder. The structure of the book allows a revealing contrast between one of America's greatest environmental activists on three key issues. These are: 1) the desirability and advisability of exploring and mining for ore and minerals in protected wilderness areas, 2) whether it is preferable to develop land on the Atlantic Coast or allow it to be developed, and 3) the desirability of damming major rivers in the Southwest.

My favorite portion of the book featured Brower's encounter with the fascinating Charles Fraser, one of America's greatest and most gifted land developers. At debate was whether to develop Cumberland Island as a recreational and residential area, or whether to leave it wild and protect it as a National Seashore. The editorial reviewer inaccurately stated that Fraser was successful in his goal to develop it. He was not. Today Cumberland Island is a designated National Seashore. Fraser had hoped to develop Cumberland much as he had Hilton Head. What is compelling about Fraser is his desire to develop land on the one hand, with an intent to respect the physical surroundings to the greatest possible degree. Brower himself says in the book that while he is opposed to developing Cumberland Island, if anyone were to develop it, he would want Fraser to be that person.

The section of the book in which Brower and dam builder Floyd Dominy discuss a wide range of issues is fascinating not just in contrasting two fundamentally opposed viewpoints, but in bringing out both Brower's most conspicuous success and failure. The success was his leading the Sierra Club in opposing building a dam in the Grand Canyon. The tragedy was that in focusing on opposing the Grand Canyon, Brower and the Sierra Club were unable to fight the building of the Glen Canyon River Dam, for environmentalists and conservationists perhaps the single greatest tragedy since the building of the Hetch Hetchy Dam early in the 20th century. In building this dam, the ironically named Lake Powell was created. Many environmentalists refer to his as Lake Foul. The irony stems from the fact that it was named in "honor" of John Wesley Powell, who led the first expedition of Europeans to explore the entirety of the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon. Powell was deeply opposed to the development of the American West beyond the ability of the water supply to support the local population. He would, therefore, have been horrified to find such an anti-monument as this lake bearing his name. Edward Abbey's books are filled with vituperative attacks on the devastation wrought by the building of the Glen Canyon River Dam. There are several organizations that continue calling for the draining of Lake Powell.

Why is there so much outrage at this dam? In creating Lake Powell, the water covered some of the most excruciatingly beautiful landscape not only in the United States but the world. Just before the dam was completed and the waters filled the area, photographer Eliot Porter took a number of remarkable photographs chronicling the magnificence of what was lost. Instead of being covered with water, the area should have been declared a national park. The poignancy of the final section of McPhee's book is the since of the tragedy of the dam, and the two who struggled over its building, meet and talk.