Islands in a Far Sea: Nature and Man in Hawaii

by John L. Culliney

Culliney (biology and marine science, Hawaii Loa College) combines natural history and popular science to demonstrate the impact of human habitation on Hawaii's ecology. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

410 pages, Hardcover

First published December 3, 1988

Reviews

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an informative, passionate, and beautifully written account of Hawaiian natural history that extends from the birth of the islands millions of years ago to the present. This is a rich book that takes slow reading. Having some field guides at hand helps with appreciating the plants and animals whose descriptions pack the book. Sohmer and Gustafson's Plants and Flowers of Hawaii, the Audubon Birds of Haiwaii, and the amazing photos in Littschwager and Middleston's Remains of a Rainbow were useful and inspiring to me.

Culliney's prose is evocative on its own though:
"What must an ancient Hawaiian coastline have looked like after a winter and spring of abundant rain, with wiliwili and interspersed cotton trees flaring into bloom amid loulu and kanaloa? What lost fragrances were carried on the trade winds to the nostrils of canoe paddlers approaching from leeward? What vanished birds lived in those coastal forests and sang above the rush of wind and crash of surf?"

Beyond mourning lost wonders, this book is fiercely and pragmatically engaged with how to rescue what remains.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Biogeography at its best. A rich resource of information for the Hawaiian archipelago. Can be used as a case study for tropical, volcanic island evolution.

[Brenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written about how the Hawaiian Island chain was formed along with all of plants and creatures and how they got there.