NATURAL RESOURCES BOOK REVIEW.Hunting from Home: A Year Afield in the Blue Ridge Mountains Blue Ridge also Blue Ridge Mountains A range of the Appalachian Mountains extending from southern Pennsylvania to northern Georgia. It rises to 2,038.6 m (6,684 ft) at Mount Mitchell in the Black Mountains of western North Carolina. By Christopher Camuto Christopher Camuto is a writer and outdoorsman whose work focuses primarily on the natural environment. He is the author of a nonfiction trilogy on the southern Appalachian Mountains that includes A Fly Fisherman’s Blue Ridge, (W.W. Norton & Co., 2003, $24.95) Time stretches differently for the hunter, measured in seasons and days others do not recognize. Time isn't slowed, but so much happens more slowly, and 15 minutes afield can cleanse 15 weeks of urban mental filth. Though it has a splendid history, literary writing on hunting has become increasingly rare, as hunters themselves. Once, a national audience could understand, and identify, with a passage such as this: You don't forget the deer you killed, or where you kill them, or the way late-afternoon sunlight slanted through the ranks of bare trees as if you were sitting in a cathedral with its roof off. But I believe even the uninitiated un·in·i·ti·at·ed adj. Not knowledgeable or skilled; inexperienced. n. An uninformed, unskilled, or inexperienced person or group of people. can find the words soothing, for they are less about hunting than the beauty of language and life and how they interrelate in·ter·re·late tr. & intr.v. in·ter·re·lat·ed, in·ter·re·lat·ing, in·ter·re·lates To place in or come into mutual relationship. in , about how things are, how things always have been. Walking, the author writes, is a way of exposing your own consciousness to the larger calculus calculus, branch of mathematics that studies continuously changing quantities. The calculus is characterized by the use of infinite processes, involving passage to a limit—the notion of tending toward, or approaching, an ultimate value. of the life of things. And this book, slowly, reminds us why that is so important. - Michael A. Anastasi INTERNET --Bass attack: The Web site westernbass.com features an interesting article about the idea that the elusive world record largemouth bass largemouth bass see micropterus salmoides. (still holding at 22 pounds, 4 ounces) will ever be properly recorded and confirmed. And since several lakes in California are on the brink of producing the big one (and we're not talking about earthquakes this time), such reading is intriguing to bass anglers in these parts. ``Over the years we've had every kind of story emerge, from the Lake Miramar fish that supposedly swallowed a 2 1/2-pound diver's belt weight,'' writes author George Kramer, ``to a Lake Castaic lunker lunk·er n. Informal Something, especially a game fish, that is large for its kind. [Origin unknown.] left to dry out in the bottom of the boat before being certified.'' The rest of the site is informative as well for those who plan on pursuing the record largemouth. The reports are broken down by region, including a Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, report that features updates on local lakes Casitas, Castaic and Cachuma. - Chris Cocoles CAPTION(S): photo, box Photo: no caption (book: Hunting from Home: A Year Afield in the Blue Ridge Mountains) Box: ON THE TUBE |
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