The plants and animals that live 
at timberline are said by poets to brave 
the elements, but in fact this is their 
place; they are adapted to it. When, 
experimentally, they are moved to 
lower and milder regions, they suffer 
from competition with native species 
and from diseases that they have never 
“learned” genetically to oppose. The 
only annual plant near Smith’s camp 
is a tiny buckwheat ( Koenigia ). The 
rest are perennials that bloom quickly 
in the alpine summer, then pump nu- 
trients into their roots for cold storage 
during the winter. The champion at 
| survival among the subalpine animals 
is the pika, a small, rabbitlike creature 
that cuts hay, dries it in the sun, and 
caches it under rock slides against the 
long, dark months ahead. 
Now and then I detect educational 
overtones (not displeasing) in the au- 
thor’s voice — especially when he drifts 
away from his narrative to reveal some 
secret of animal behavior. 
“The coyote,” he explains, “is one 
of the few large predators to have 
expanded its range since the advent 
of civilization.” Of the porcupine: 
“This lumbering creature is one of 
the most astonishing animals. Any ani- 
mal willing to carry, lifelong, a prickly 
armor of some 30,000 barbed quills 
>o that it may peacefully eat tree bark 
deserves some respect.” He reports 
that a community of gophers can move 
our to eight tons of soil per acre per 
year. Of the pikas: “To obtain maxi- 
mum value from their food [they] re- 
ngest their own fecal matter, which 
s high in protein and energy value. 
They preserve body moisture by de- 
positing almost crystalline urine, 
vhich leaves the white nitrogenous salt 
leposits often seen by hikers here on 
>oulder surfaces.” White-tailed ptar- 
migans, he notes, “are so successful 
in blending with their environment, 
and so confident of their invisibility, 
that it is possible to step on a nesting 
bird without seeing it.” 
I’m pleased to read Smith’s opinion 
as to the economic status of pocket 
gophers on the western range for it 
happens to coincide with mine. I was 
studying gophers in Colorado in the 
1950s when the “burrow builder” was 
invented. This is a sort of plow that 
digs a tunnel (an open invitation to 
gophers) into which poison baits are 
subsequently inserted. However, 
Smith tells us. “there is no conclusive 
evidence that [gophers] harm our eco- 
nomic interest, let alone the environ- 
ment in a more general sense.” 
“What I am suggesting,” he con- 
tinues, 
is that everything in this universe has 
its place, and every- time we diminish 
or destroy one species we tamper with 
a complex and delicate system that we 
know very little about. When the Rolls- 
Royce company sells an automobile, it 
comes with a locked hood so the owner 
won’t fool around with the engine. We 
humans have been given a Rolls-Royce 
with an unlocked hood and we are tin- 
kering around with machinery' we under- 
stand poorly. 
After a month on the mountain 
Smith realizes that, constrained as he 
is by lack of scientific equipment and 
by lack of free time after working 
at personal survival, he can hardly 
do any real research. His mission 
comes into focus as one simply to pro- 
duce “a rather human story of a sci- 
entifically trained man who lives more 
or less alone in the wilds for a few 
months, observing and thinking about 
the environment he is living in.” The 
result is a book that both educates 
For centuries man feared it, made 
sacrifices to it. wailed over it. Now we 
run to greet it. You are extended a 
unique invitation to witness one of 
nature s most awesome spectacles, a 
total eclipse of the sun. On July 31. 1981 
the British cruise ship, ms. Coral Prin- 
cess will be positioned 1000 miles off 
the coast of Japan to rendezvous with 
eclipse totality. 
The ORIENT ECLIPSE CRUISE and expedi- 
tion is the sequel to the six previous his- 
toric VOYAGE TO DARKNESS eclipse expe- 
ditions which successfully intercepted 
totality off the coasts of Nova Scotia. 
Africa, the Caribbean, in the Pacific and 
at Montana s Big Sky eclipse expedition. 
The ORIENT ECLIPSE CRUISE adventure 
offers a distinguished staff of shipboard 
lecturers (including meteorologist Dr. 
Edward M. Brooks) scientific, cultural 
and educational programs, and tours of 
japan, Hong Kong. Macau and China. 
Join us as we probe earth, sea and 
space for yet another exciting and 
memorable cosmic 
adventure 
as we sail 
into totality 
and beyond. 
0R1CR7 
ccupsc 
CRU1SC 
voyage to Darkness vn 
r nhI 
I Orient Eclipse Cruises, inc. 
I 1080 Fifth Avenue 
New York, N.Y. 10028 
| Please send me more information 
I on the ORIENT ECLIPSE CRUISE 
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