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11/21/2005: "Review of The Great Marsh, An Intimate Journey into a Chesapeake Wetland"

I highly recommend The Great Marsh, An Intimate Journey into a Chesapeake Wetland, by David W. Harp and Tom Horton, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002, for a fascinating photographic visit to the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Dorchester County on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Some of the pictures that I found particularly interesting were the aerial views of the waterways, the close-up shots of the denizen animals and the faces of the human inhabitants. The gnarled hands of a waterman working the steering lever of his boat as he patrolled for blue crabs and the determined expression of a young girl as she assisted her father in setting muskrat traps are two of the images that linger in one’s mind as representative of this special place. All in all though, the natural beauty of the wetland is the real star of this book.