This is CBS Eye on the World.

Here's John Batchelor.

Continuing with Professor Dan Flores, his new book is Wild New World,

the epic story of animals and people in America.

Henry David Thoreau, certainly a man celebrated for his

literary skill and his observation talents, wrote very carefully, this is the 19th century,

when I consider that the nobler animals have been exterminated here, the cougar, panther, lynx,

wolverine, wolf bear, moose most deer, the beaver, the turkey.

I cannot but feel as if I have lived in a tamed and, as it were, emasculated country.

I take infinite pains to know all the phenomena of the spring, thinking that I have heard the entire poem, and then to my chagrin,

I hear that it is but an imperfect copy that I possess and have read,

that my ancestors have torn out many of the first leaves and grandest passages,

and mutilated it in many places.

I read that a loud, Professor, because it's extremely sad and very accurate.

In your telling, you fill in the parts that Henry David Thoreau moves quickly past as he

celebrates a pond.

And in considering North America, I asked the big question because you've been

dealing with this story for quite some time, Dan, and I'm privileged to speak to you about it,

having read your book. Is this understanding that the Ro had? Is he isolated? Is he a loner at the time?

Or was this always there in America and just overwhelmed by the politics

and the prosperity of the age?

I think it was there,

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