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BOOK REVIEWS 
LOST HERITAGE: Wilderness America Through the Eyes of Seven 
Pre-Audubon Naturalists. By Henry Savage, Jr. 
William Morrow and Co., 105 Madison Ave., New York 10016. $10.00. 
fenry Savage, Jr. has made a significant contribution to nature writing by 
rathering in one volume some of the observations of early America by seven 
arly explorers. Lincoln once said that we could better know where we are 
‘coing if we understood where we had been. Now that the Environmental 
Jecade of the ’70s is upon us, it is well to examine some of what we have 
avished, and what we perchance have also preserved. 
The seven legendary naturalists named herein are John Lawson, Mark 
tatesby, John and William Bertram, Andre and Francois Michaux, and 
\lexander Wilson. In examining their experiences, one longs for the oppor- 
unity to have known the early North American continent, if only for a 
veek or a month as they had known it—no smog, no congestions, and no 
ollution. 
Probably less is per of John Lawson than any of the others. He 
ame to Charleston in 1700—but twenty years old when he stepped off the 
oat. He is the author of “The New Voyage to the Carolina” a study of the 
atural history of the area, and published in London in 1709. Little is known 
f how he died (perhaps by violence at the hands of the Indians) not long 
fter the publication of his book. There is some feeling that perhaps John 
sawson even assumed his name—‘cloaked in mystery, he comes without 
atroduction, credentials, birth certificate, or known ancestry.” 
Mark Catesby’s New World was the Carolinas, Virginia, and part of 
reorgia. He came here at the behest of London gentlemen interested in the 
otany of the area, but Catesby soon became so engrossed in the bird life 
nat he neglected his assignments of collection of seeds, plants, and mounted 
pecimens. He had illustrated over a hundred birds while his botany de- 
otees grew impatient. He is credited with writing the first illustrated 
‘merican ornithology. 
John Bartram, a friend of Benjamin Franklin, was the founder of the 
rst botanical garden in America. His son, William, who lived from 1739 to 
823, spent much of his time exploring in Florida, and gained a reputation 
Ss an ornithologist. 
Andre and Francois Michaux were a father and son team who visited 
nd explored extensively in early America. Andre Michaux spent ten years 
1 America, visited as far as the Wabash River, and devoted 11 weeks of his 
me to the state of Georgia. His son, Francois Andre Michaux, became 
nown as the “Father of American Forestry” for his interest and scientific 
ritings and observation of the American forest. He died at his country 
state in 1855 near Paris, and lies buried beneath the shade of American 
rees he planted there. 
Perhaps the best known, and the most widely written about of the seven 
re-Audubon naturalists, is the sole Scot, Alexander Wilson. He came to 
lelaware in 1794 aboard the Swift with barely a shilling to his name. A poet 
nd a liberal in his native land, he became outspoken in behalf of the op- 
ressed workers, and felt that his own safety demanded he exile himself to 
