Tweets:

I've just received a review copy of a very welcome new/old book:
*Narrative of a Journey across the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia
River* by John Kirk Townsend (1809-1851). First published in a small
edition for family and friends in 1839, the account has been reissued
several times since then with greater or lesser cuts and other
changes. This edition, published by the Oregon State University
Press and annotated by George Jobanek, reproduces the full original
text, including the catalogues of quadrupeds and birds found in the
Territory of Oregon (basically, everything west of the Mississippi
and north of Texas and California). The account of his outbound
trip, overland through Nebraska and Wyoming; his two-year sojourn at
Fort Vancouver (now Washington) and vicinity; his continuation to the
Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands; and return to Philadelphia via Chile and
Cape Horn, is one of the great narratives of early North American
natural history. Thanks to Townsend's collections, John James
Audubon was able to include many Northwestern species new to science
in his *Birds of America*. Audubon named Townsend's Warbler in his
honor (and Townsend returned the compliment with Audubon's Warbler);
Vaux's Swift is named for one of the Philadelphia financial backers
of Townsend's expedition. Far more than a record of observations and
collecting, however, this is a fascinating and often moving account
of people and landscapes that still has resonances with the Oregon
Country of today, despite the vast transformations that have occurred
since then.

Publication details:

Narrative of a Journey across the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia River
by John Kirk Townsend
Introduction and annotation by George A. Jobanek
320 pages, paperback $16.95
ISBN 0-87071-525-9
Publication date: February 2000
Available in bookstores and libraries or by calling 1-800-426-3797

Enjoy!

Hal Opperman
Medina, Washington
mailto:halop at accessone.com