In Underland, Robert Macfarlane delivers an epic exploration of the Earth's underworlds as they exist in myth, literature, memory, and the land itself. Traveling through the dizzying expanse of geologic time-from prehistoric art in Norwegian sea caves, to the blue depths of the Greenland ice cap, to a deep-sunk "hiding place" where nuclear waste will be stored for 100,000 years to come-Underland takes us on an extraordinary journey into our relationship with darkness, burial, and what lies beneath the surface of both place and mind. Global in its geography and written with great lyricism, Underland speaks powerfully to our present moment. At once ancient and urgent, this is a book that will change the way you see the world.

Western Australia has over 3,500 islands, the largest number of any Australian state or territory. All remain in public ownership; almost all south of the Kimberley are managed by a single government agency, whilst almost all Kimberley islands are native title; a situation unique in the world. This book, written by two experienced wildlife scientists, documents the islands' plants and animals, and discusses the islands' history, impacts of invasive species, and management actions. It is arranged geographically, taking the reader on a journey from the Kimberley south along the west coast to Cape Leeuwin, and then east to the Archipelago of the Recherche. Throughout, you will be introduced to the Island Jewels of Western Australia in all their magnificence.

This fascinating book is a firsthand account of the adventures of an ornithological field team studying long-tailed finches in outback Australia. In 1991, Nancy Burley, a noted behavioral ecologist, and her husband, Richard Symanski, went to Australia with their one-year-old son and four American students hired as field assistants and babysitter. The social relationships and problems that developed among these individuals in confined and exotic settings and the scientific discoveries that did -- and did not -- take place form the heart of the book.

Symanski begins by telling how he and his wife set up this elaborate field expedition -- including the hiring of what seemed to be qualified, compatible, and knowledgeable field assistants. He then describes the harsh realities of their circumstances in Australia: primitive living conditions on an outback cattle station; field sites and subjects for study that were not as expected; and students who were not prepared for the rigors of field life and who became unenthusiastic about the work for which they had been hired. And he tells how he and his wife strove to overcome all the different challenges with which they were confronted. The book provides insight into the demands of professor-student-based fieldwork, particularly when generational conflicts, differing expectations, and culture shock complicate the "business" of doing science.

Winner of the 2020 Wainwright Prize, Diary of a Young Naturalist chronicles the turning of Dara McAnulty's world, from spring to summer, autumn to winter, on his home patch, at school, in the wild and in his head. Evocative, raw and beautifully written, this very special book vividly explores the natural world from the perspective of an autistic teenager juggling homework, exams and friendships alongside his life as a conservationist and environmental activist. With a sense of awe and wonder, Dara describes in meticulous detail encounters in his garden and the wild, with blackbirds, whooper swans, red kites, hen harriers, frogs, dandelions, skylarks, bats, cuckoo flowers, Irish hares and many more species. The power and warmth of his words also draw an affectionate and moving portrait of a close-knit family making their way in the world.

The debate over the age of the Earth has been ongoing for over two thousand years, and has pitted physicists and astronomers against biologists, and religious philosophers against geologists. The Chronologers' Quest tells the fascinating story of our attempts to determine the age of the Earth. This book investigates the many novel methods used in the search for the Earth's age, from James Ussher and John Lightfoot examining biblical chronologies, and from Comte de Buffon and Lord Kelvin determining the length of time for the cooling of the Earth, to the more recent investigations of Arthur Holmes and Clair Patterson into radioactive dating of rocks and meteorites. The Chronologers' Quest is a readable account of the measurement of geological time. It will be of great interest to a wide range of readers, from those with little scientific background to students and scientists in a wide range of the Earth sciences.

'A triumph' The TLS 'This special and magical book has changed the way I see the world' Dan Saladino 'Inspiration and delight sparkle from every page ... This book [is] a revelation of joy to the general reader for whom wild food is another country' John Wright, author of the River Cottage handbooks A captivating and lyrical journey into our ancestral past, through what and how we eat. Mo Wilde made a quiet but radical pledge: to live only off free, foraged food for an entire year. In a world disconnected from its roots, eating wild food is both culinary and healing, social and political. Ultimately, it is an act of love and community. Using her expert knowledge of botany and mycology, Mo follows the seasons to find nutritious food from hundreds of species of plants, fungi and seaweeds, and in the process learns not just how to survive, but how to thrive. Nourishing her body and mind deepens her connection with the earth - a connection that we have become estranged from but which we all, deep down, hunger for. This hunger is about much more than food. It is about accepting and understanding our place in a natural network that is both staggeringly complex and beautifully simple. THE WILDERNESS CURE is a diary of a wild experiment; a timely and inspiring memoir which explores a deeper relationship between humans and nature, and reminds us of the important lost lessons from our past.

This early work is a fascinating read for any goat enthusiast or historian of the breed, but also contains much information that is still useful and practical for the amateur or professional goat farmer today. Contents Include: How Goats are Kept; Choosing a Goat; Feeding the Milking Goat; The Kids; Milk; Health; List of Books; and Index. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

This complete collection of Francis Bacon's essays is superbly presented and meticulously faithful to the original publication. An intellectual possessed of a staggering breadth of knowledge and learning, Francis Bacon wrote many essays on a range of topics. Subjects such as married life, child rearing, the sins of envy and vainglory, and the virtues of friendship, love and good counsel are all thoughtfully expounded upon and detailed in these essays. Cautionary writings on the subjects of anger and revenge are also present; Bacon notably makes an impassioned plea for true justice, noting that the quality of mercy is a far higher virtue than the 'wild justice' born of angry revenge. Reflecting the early colonial times in which Francis Bacon lived, we also witness essays upon the subjects of travel, Empire, ambition and commerce. Well-traveled and curious about distant lands, it is also with experience that Bacon imbues color and depth to his essays.

ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE BY GEORGE J. BOMANES, M.A. LL.D. F.R.S. ZOOLOGICAL SECRETARY OF THE LIXXEA SOCIETY FIFTH EDITION LONDON KEGAN PAUL, TBENCH, TKUBNEK, CO. LTD, PATERNOSTER HOUSE, CHARING CROSS ROAD 1892 WHEN I first began to collect materials for this work it was my intention, to divide the book into two parte. Of these.. intended the first to be concerned only with the facts of animal intelligence, while the second was to have treated of these facts in..their relation to the theory of Descent. Finding, however, as I proceeded, that the material was too considerable in amount to admit of being comprised within the limits of a single volume, I have made arrangements with the publishers of the International Scientific Series to bring out the second division of the work as a separate treatise, under the title 4 Mental Evolution. This treatise I hope to get ready for press within a year or two. My object in the work as a whole is twofold. First, I have thought it desirable that there should be something resembling a textbook of the facts of Comparative Psychology, to which men of science, and also metaphysicians, may turn whenever they may have occasion to acquaint themselves with the particular level of intelligence to which this or that species of animal attains. Hitherto the endeavour of assigning these levels has been almost exclusively in the hands of popular writers and as these have, for the most part, merely strung together, with discrimination more or less inadequate, innumerable anecdotes of the display of animal intelligence, their books ire valueless as works of reference. So much, indeed, is this the case, that Comparative Psychology has been virtually excluded from thehierarchy of the sciences. If we except the methodical researches of a few distinguished naturalists, it would appear that the phenomena of mind in animals, having constituted so much and so long the theme of unscientific authors, are now considered wellnigh unworthy of serious treatment by scientific methods. But it is surely needless to point out that the phenomena which constitute the subjectmatter of Comparative Psychology, even if we regard them merely as facts in Nature, have at least as great a claim to accurate classification as those phenomena of structure which constitute the subjectmatter of Comparative Anatomy. Leaving aside, therefore, the reflection that within the last twenty years the facts of animal intelligence have suddenly acquired a new and profound importance, from the proved probability of their genetic continuity wifh those of human intelligence, it would remain true that their systematic arrangement is a worthy object of scientific endeavour. This, then, has been my first object, which, otherwise stated, amounts merely to passing the animal kingdom in review in order to give a trustworthy account of the grade of psychological development which is presented by each group. Such is the scope of the present treatise.

It was 11pm when I checked my email for the last time and turned off my phone for what I hoped would be forever. No running water, no car, no electricity or any of the things it powers: the internet, phone, washing machine, radio or light bulb. Just a wooden cabin, on a smallholding, by the edge of a stand of spruce. In this honest and lyrical account of a remarkable life without modern technology, Mark Boyle explores the hard won joys of building a home with his bare hands, learning to make fire, collecting water from the spring, foraging and fishing. What he finds is an elemental life, one governed by the rhythms of the sun and seasons, where life and death dance in a primal landscape of blood, wood, muck, water, and fire - much the same life we have lived for most of our time on earth. Revisiting it brings a deep insight into what it means to be human at a time when the boundaries between man and machine are blurring.

Richard Owen (1804-92) was, after Darwin, the most important figure in Victorian natural history. He was, for most of the six decades of his career, Britain's foremost comparative anatomist and vertebrate palaeontologist. Leader of the nineteenth-century museum movement, he founded London's monumental Natural History Museum, wrote and published copiously and won every professional honour. Positioned at the cutting edge of Victorian science, his work attracted enormous general interest, and he himself came to symbolise 'natural history' in the public mind. His company was sought by royalty (Prince Albert), prime ministers (especially Sir Robert Peel), and by contemporary literati such as Charles Dickens. Owen was, however, a controversial figure whose disagreements with colleagues developed into epic power struggles, the most notorious of which were with Darwin and Huxley. As the most renowned opponent of natural selection, Owen was type-cast as a Cuvierian creationist and became the bete noire of the Darwinian evolution debate. In this comprehensive intellectual and scientific biography, Nicolaas Rupke argues that Owen was no simple-minded anti-evolutionist and, moreover, should be freed from the distortion of the evolution dispute that was only a minor part of his work, yet has come to dominate his memory. Using the museum movement as the primary context of explanation, Rupke throws new light on a wide area of Owen's activities. He reveals the central division in Owen's scientific oeuvre between the functionalism of Oxbridge natural theology and the transcendentalism of German nature philosophy. This epistemological duality confused and puzzled his contemporaries as well as laterhistorians. But as Rupke convincingly demonstrates, it was a fundamental extension of the intellectual and political manoeuvering for control of Victorian cultural institutions, and an inextricable part of the rise to public authority of the most articulate proponents of the scientific study of nature.

"Teachings of the Cat Zen Masters," by Sheryll Dahlke, is a collection of quotes by famous cats, such as T. Furball, Oscar Wildecat, and many others. Felix Waldo Emerson, for instance, says: "There is a cat-like quality in everything God has made." In these pithy sayings, cats live totally in the moment with full awareness. Like a contradiction, they study the Self to forget the Self. They are centered in balance and in time, completely within the activity of the moment--whether playing with a stone or a butterfly. "This little book is a joyous read. You will be given the powerful, loving freedom for you to be yourself."--Juanita "Catastrophe" Tobin, Poet--Blowing Rock, NC."The enlightened cat is a beautiful thing. We humans can learn a few things from "Teachings of the Cat Zen Masters." Enjoy!"--Rita Bayron, Faithful Feline Follower--Coppell, TX.

From Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado to the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in Kansas, this volume provides a snapshot of the most spectacular and important natural places in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains. America's Natural Places: Rocky Mountains and Great Plains examines over 50 of the most spectacular and important areas of this region, with each entry describing the importance of the area, the flora and fauna that it supports, threats to the survival of the region, and what is being done to protect it. Organized by state within the volume, this work informs readers about the wide variety of natural areas across the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains and identifies places that may be near them that demonstrate the importance of preserving such regions.

From the beloved author of the bestselling "To Bless the Space Between Us" and "Anam Cara "comes a new work that shares his insights on nature and the ancient wisdom of this earth.
John O'Donohue won hundreds of thousands of admirers with his now classic work on Celtic spirituality "Anam Cara." Unfortunately he died suddenly at age fifty-two just as his book of blessings, "To Bless the Space Between Us," was being published. The loss of his powerfully wise and lyrical voice has been profoundly missed, but his many readers are given a special opportunity to revisit John in a new book based on a series of papers he wrote on the elements of water, stone, air, and fire, now published here for the first time. O'Donohue's readers know him as both a spiritual guide and a poet, and in this work he exhibits both qualities, sharing his Celtic heritage and his love for his native landscape in the west of Ireland. As O'Donohue explores a range of themes relating to the way we live our lives today, he reveals how the energy and rhythm of the natural world--its innocence and creativity, its power and splendor--hold profound lessons for us all. With a foreword written by his beloved brother, Pat, this illuminating book is an inspired reflection on the ancient wisdom of the earth.

Author, Robert J. Drew has relived his many years of experience in England and America dealing with both pigs, and the people that care for them, in this humorous and educational read Pig Tales From Across the Pond.

Both countries have elements that are undoubtedly unique. There are however many similarities, and it is these, along with the subtle differences in cultures and paradigms that are observed and then drawn upon by the author that are sure to make you laugh. Wild Boars and Wild BullsCowboys and Indiansi Tornadoes and BlizzardsSnakes and Snapping TurtlesMarijuana and more.......

Whether you use the word hog or pig, drive on the left hand side of the road or the right, smoke cigarettes or fags, or have ever been asked by a complete stranger . . . "Do you know how to shag?" There is something within Pig Tales From Across the Pond that will make you want to tell your family and friends.

We are living in a time of massive change. Our planet's life-giving world of nature is suffering unsustainable duress and is headed towards collapse. At the same time, humankind is forging ahead with ever more potent and destructive industrial practices, practices that are causing the over-exploitation of both renewable and non-renewable resources, which in turn are resulting in even more worldwide environmental degradation. As the power of industry becomes more efficient, as the human population continues to increase, and as life-sustaining nature suffers ongoing trauma, the situation will soon be dire. Two over-riding questions dominate. On a finite planet can we really expect infinite growth and, in our rush to grow the global economy, are we condemning future generations to lives that will, in fact, be unsustainable? If that is so, as this book concludes, it will inevitably cause civil conflict - a conflict between the industrial extractors of natural resources and those who wish to protect our earth for future generations. Until now, the conflicts have been mostly law-abiding, but for how long can more radical reactions be deterred? Through reminiscences, personal observations and documented examples of wild animal depletions, the author explores the ecological damage we have already caused. At the end of the book, he proposes some solutions that should protect future generations from the outrages of our time. But are we capable of making the necessary changes?