In Defense of Canadian 'Biological Literature': A BC Literary Nobel Prize and Environmental Biology's BC Literary Connections

摘要

The Comox Valley is home to the second biggest estuary on B.C.'s West Coast, and as such it is -amongst its many other exceptional attributes - one of the most important bird areas in British Columbia. Historically this has made it a mecca for ornithologists, since its colonization in 1865. Among the noted pioneer ornithologists who came from Manitoba to live here, one of the most important was Hamilton Mack Laing (1883-1982).' MackLaing was one of the great "collectors" who worked for the Canadian National Museum and the Smithsonian. He wrote some 22 articles in scientific journals, 14 books and over 1,000 articles in the "nature" journals and magazines of his day. He was also a field teacher to a young Ian McTaggart Cowan. This makes his estate an important part of Canada's environmental history.