It would be trite indeed for me to write that mountains loom large in human history. Yet at the same time it must be acknowledged that they do play a remarkable role in the myths and histories we have repeated for millennia.
The number of books encompassed by the many natural history series published by Reaktion Books and distributed by University of Chicago Press is truly impressive. From Animal and Botanical through Kosmos and Earth, scores upon scores of volumes (Animal alone, by my count, presently contains ninety-nine books) take up a wide range of topics that will keep an interested naturalist reading for years.
It is no secret that I have a particular interest in the history of the early modern period in England, which has the fascinating – to me, at least – intersection of old herbalist practices, folk healing, and alchemy with what were the beginnings of what became modern medicine, of folk understandings of the natural world with natural philosophy and later natural history.
Famous during his short early twentieth-century lifetime for the remarkable work he did, Muggins quickly became beloved by both citizens and soldiers alike during the the period of World War One as he padded the streets of not only Victoria, British Columbia with his little collection boxes, but far and wide as well.