RUN, RIVER, RUN: A Naturalist's Journey Down One of the Great Rivers of the West

An unhurried, acutely knowledgeable pursuit of the character and vagaries of the Green River ' of the West with its ""730 miles of running"" in Wyoming, Colorado and Utah. The author travels beside and on the river, and along the way notes geological formations, flora and fauna, winds and weather, and human artifacts. There are anecdotes concerning early and contemporary settlers and transients who used, and are still using, the river as a source of sustenance or of transport. The author herself runs rapids in canoes and rafts and indulges pleasantly in a number of solitary appreciations of natural splendor: ""Rock, tree, sky. . . I suppose it is the proportions that count, how much is stone, how much is green, yielding, and how much is river, going on and never coming back."" Along with extensive information, Zwinger offers prime views of water in various stages of flux as well as dramatic cliffs, sluicing weirs, abandoned homesteads, bridges and rippled sands. A solid, handsomely researched portrait of a great river and its borders.