Excursions contains the complete texts of nine of Thoreau's most popular essays. These include Natural History of Massachusetts, his first essay to appear in The Dial (a quarterly periodical edited by Margaret Fuller), as well as other well known early works like A Winter Walk and The Landlord. Later works include his famous essays Walking, Autumnal Tints and Wild Apples, the last of which was based on a lecture he gave during the Concord Lyceum's 1859-1860 season and was published in the Atlantic Monthly after his death. *** Because Excursions is a chronological presentation of Thoreau's work, including early pieces as well as essays from his later life, it gives us a fascinating look at the development of one of America's greatest writers and thinkers. *** Thoreau had a tremendous influence on American literature and in the development of the study of natural history. He is considered one of America's foremost writers, both in terms of his writing style and because of the forward-looking views that his essays embody. *** This edition includes a biographical "sketch" of Thoreau by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Peter Banyard (1931-2018) was born in Birmingham and educated in London and Oxfordshire. He was ordained a Jesuit priest in 1961 and spent the greater part of his working life as teacher and chaplain in St Aloysius' College, Glasgow. The predominant topics of his poetry are the natural world and especially the Hebridean island of Vatersay. His deftly crafted compositions were clearly inspired by his Victorian Jesuit predecessor Gerard Manley Hopkins. And, like Hopkins, he saw God in everything and good in everyone.

The German Shepherd - A Complete Anthology of the Dog gathers together all the best early writing on the breed from our library of scarce, out-of-print antiquarian books and documents and reprints it in a quality, modern edition. This anthology includes chapters taken from a comprehensive range of books, many of them now rare and much sought-after works, all of them written by renowned breed experts of their day. These books are treasure troves of information about the breed - The physical points, temperaments, and special abilities are given; celebrated dogs are discussed and pictured; and the history of the breed and pedigrees of famous champions are also provided. The contents were well illustrated with numerous photographs of leading and famous dogs of that era and these are all reproduced to the highest quality. Books used include: Dogs And How To Know Them by Edward C. Ash (1925), Dogs Of The World by Arthur Craven (1931), Hutchinson's Dog Encyclopaedia by Walter Hutchinson (1935) and many others.

Binary Rare Earth Oxides is the first book in the field of rare earth oxides that provides coverage from the basic science through to recent advances. This book introduces the unique characteristics of the binary rare earth oxides with their chemistry, physics and applications. It provides a comprehensive review of all the characteristics of rare earth oxides, essential for scientists and engineers involved with rare earths, oxides, inorganic materials, ceramics, and structures. The binary rare earth oxides bring us a variety of interesting characteristics. Understanding their fundamental mechanisms builds a bridge between solid-state chemistry and materials science.

The book begins with a brief introduction to binary rare earth oxides, their physical and chemical stabilities, polymorphism, crystal structures and phase transformation and the association with current applications. The book goes on to present the band structure of the oxides using several quantum chemical calculations, which belong to a newly developed area in the binary rare earth oxides. Central to this chapter are the characterizations of electrical, magnetic and optical properties, as well as details of single crystal growth and particle preparation methods that have progressed in recent years. Later chapters concentrate on thermo-chemical properties and trace determination techniques. The final chapter contains a variety of useful applications in various fields such as phosphors, glass abrasives, automotive catalysts, fuel cells, solid electrolytes, sunscreens, iron steels, and biological materials.
This book is an invaluable resource for materials scientists and solid-state physicists and chemists with an interest in rare earth oxides, as well as advanced students and graduates who require an approach to familiarize them with this field. This book provides guidance through a comprehensive review of all the characteristics of binary rare earth oxides.

Featuring iconic animals from red deer, golden eagles and Highland cows to red squirrels, pine martens and salmon as well as the plants, trees and flowers which thrive in mountain, forest, moor and seashore, this book is the ideal way to explore Scotland's amazing range of flora and fauna. Many of the illustrations show the animals and plants in their natural habitats, so you can appreciate the extraordinary beauty of Scotland's landscapes too.

Why is the Hawk's Tail Red? is a book of faith. Not faith in the conventional sense, however. In fact, it wasn't until I divested myself of my Christian shackles that I discovered my true spirituality, one rooted in the natural world. The book deals with some of the reasons Western Man has found it difficult to feel harmony with life, a key factor being his inability to reconcile the natural and the divine. It offers proof that there is room for the inexplicable in scientific theory, and points out that a formal acceptance of God would lead to more beneficial advances. This would transpire independent of the creationism viewpoint. The conformist will find little solace in the text. Who am I kidding? He'll never find the book period. For it takes a swan dive, or better yet, performs a cannonball, into the waters of some of our most cherished institutions. Its content will entice the discontented, those who do not feel quite right when all seems right with the world, and perceive amid all the present hoopla, a slight disturbance within the essence of the collective soul.

'Bracingly original' Kathryn Hughes, Guardian From Romney Marsh to the Danube Delta, North Carolina to the Bay of Bengal, Tom Blass explores swamps, marshes and wetlands - and the people who have made these twilit worlds their homes. Oozing with bad airs, boggarts and other spirits, the world's marshes and swamps are often seen as sinister, permanently twilit - and only partly of this earth. For centuries, they - and their inhabitants - have been the object of our distrust. We have tried to drain away their demons and tame them, destroying their fragile beauty, botany and birdlife, along with the carefully calibrated lives of those who have come to understand and thrive in them. In Swamp Songs, Tom Blass journeys through a series of such watery landscapes, from Romney Marsh to North Carolina, from Lapland to the Danube Delta and on to the Bay of Bengal, encountering those whose very existence has been shaped by wetlands, their myths and hidden histories. Here are tales of shepherds, smugglers and salt-gatherers; of mangroves and machismo, frogs and fishermen. And of carp soup, tiger gods, flamingos and floods. A dazzling exploration of lives lived on the fringes of civilisation, Swamp Songs is a vital reappraisal and vibrant celebration of people and environments closely intertwined.

Sunday Times Bestseller How did life on Earth begin? What is the nature of space and time? What are the chances that we will discover life on other worlds? Think you know our planet? Think again. Forces of Nature takes you from the mid-Atlantic ridge in Iceland, the volcanoes of Indonesia and the precipitous cliffs in Nepal, to the manatees off the coast of Florida and the northern lights of the Arctic, in search of the fundamental laws that govern our world. These universal laws shape everything, from the structure of snowflakes to the elegant spirals of the galaxies. By seeking to understand the everyday world - the colours, structure, behaviour and history of our home - we can step beyond the everyday and approach the Universe beyond.

In this latest installment of FalconGuide's Adventures with the Parkers series, the Parkers, an intrepid family of four, journey to Acadia National Park in Maine where they explore the beautiful coastal waters and hike many of the park's finest trails, including to the top of Cadillac Mountain, the first place in the U.S. to see the sun rise every morning. They decide to end their trip by camping on an island within the national park, but when Mom tries to kayak back to the mainland, she gets beached on a remote island--and quickly discovers she is not the only one stranded there
Each book in the exciting Adventures with the Parkers series for kids 8-13 explores a popular national park and is packed with adventure as well as engaging and educational facts about nature, outdoor safety, and much more. Vacation has never been this fun

Water stress is set to become Asia's defining crisis of the twenty-first century, creating obstacles to continued rapid economic growth, stoking interstate tensions over shared resources, exacerbating long-time territorial disputes, and imposing further hardships on the poor. Asia is home to many of the world's great rivers and lakes, but its huge population and exploding economic and agricultural demand for water make it the most water-scarce continent on a per capita basis. Many of Asia's water sources cross national boundaries, and as less and less water is available, international tensions will rise. The Potential for conflict is further underscored by China's unrivaled global status as the source of transboundary river flows to the largest number of countries, ranging from India and Vietnam to Russia and Kazakhstan; Yet a fast-rising China has declined to enter into water-sharing or cooperative treaties with these states, even as it taps the resources of international rivers. Water: Asia's New Battleground is a pioneering study of Asia's murky water polities and the relationships between freshwater, peace, and security. In this unique and highly readable book, Brahma Chellaney expertly paints a larger picture of water across Asia, highlights the security implications of resource-linked territorial disputes, and proposes real strategies to avoid conflict and to more equitably share Asia's water resources.

One of the greatest stories of world exploration ever told. By the late eighteenth century, the river Niger was a 2,000-year-old two-part geographical problem. Solving it would advance European knowledge of Africa, provide a route to commercial opportunity and help eradicate the evil of slavery. Mungo Park achieved lasting fame in 1796 by solving the first part of the Niger problem - which way did the river run? Park died in 1806, in circumstances which are still uncertain, in failing to solve the second - where did the Niger end? Numerous expeditions explored the river in the decades following Park's death, but not until 1830 was its final course revealed following in-the-field exploration. By then, however, the Niger problem had been solved by 'armchair geographers' who had never even visited Africa. Majestic River celebrates Mungo Park's achievements and illuminates his rich afterlife - how and why he was commemorated long after his death. It is also the thrilling story of the many expeditions that sought to determine the Niger's course and the facts of Park's disappearance, as well as a biography of the Niger itself as the river slowly took shape in the European imagination.

The German Pointer - A Complete Anthology of the Dog gathers together all the best early writing on the breed from our library of scarce, out-of-print antiquarian books and documents and reprints it in a quality, modern edition. This anthology includes chapters taken from a comprehensive range of books, many of them now rare and much sought-after works, all of them written by renowned breed experts of their day. These books are treasure troves of information about the breed - The physical points, temperaments, and special abilities are given; celebrated dogs are discussed and pictured; and the history of the breed and pedigrees of famous champions are also provided. The contents were well illustrated with numerous photographs of leading and famous dogs of that era and these are all reproduced to the highest quality. Books used include: The Kennel Encyclopaedia by J. Sidney Turner (1908), Hutchinson's Dog Encyclopaedia by Walter Hutchinson (1935), and Hunting Dogs - Their Training And Care by Hubert Hutton (1938) and many others.

The land that was to become Scotland has travelled across the globe over the last 3,000 million years - from close to the South Pole to its current position. During these travels, there were many continental collisions, creating mountain belts as high as the present-day Himalayas. The Highlands of Scotland were formed in this way. Our climate too has changed dramatically over the last 3 billion years from the deep freeze of the Ice Age to scorching heat of the desert. And within a relatively short time - geologically speaking, we will plunge back into another ice age. In Set in Stone, Alan McKirdy traces Scotland's amazing geological journey, explaining for the non - specialist reader why the landscape looks the way it does todays. He also explores Scots and those working in Scotland have played a seminal role in the development of the science of geology, understanding Earth processes at a local and global scale.