Camp-Fires on Desert and Lava

by William T. Hornaday, William T. Hornady

This scarce antiquarian book is included in our special Legacy Reprint Series. In the interest of creating a more extensive selection of rare historical book reprints, we have chosen to reproduce this title even though it may possibly have occasional imperfections such as missing and blurred pages, missing text, poor pictures, markings, dark backgrounds and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as a part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature.

362 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1908

About the author

From Wikipedia:
William Temple Hornaday, Sc.D. was an American zoologist, conservationist, taxidermist, and author. He served as the first director of the New York Zoological Park, known today as the Bronx Zoo, and he was a pioneer in the early wildlife conservation movement in the United States.

Reviews

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

19th century sportsmen are an interesting bunch. The class-based rules of the good kill. The open racism in classifying types of hunters. The gendered understanding of what constitutes fair game. The contradictions in the rules of the hunt. (Blast that dastardly coyote.) All that said, I recognize the important role that this group played in early conservation efforts. This book is not about that though. It a travelogue of Hornaday’s excursion from Tucson to the Pinacate region of Mexico. I read it for the description of cacti, not the blasting of bighorns. The cacti description was relatively slim, but it was a’ight. Saguaros rule. Time to time it was funny seeing him explain Spanish pronunciation to the reader. He never did get the spelling of cholla right. Despite its annoyances to the contemporary eye, it was an interesting window into the past and a good description of the landscape.

[Craig Schlossin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, a little slow.

[Chris Babcock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hornaday writes of a long trip taken with several others to do research in the Sonoran Desert. This occurred in the early 1900's before many of the conveniences that we have now for camping were available. Seems like they were fixing flat tires all the time! Excellent imagery of the desert.

[Craig Schlossin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting life and times.