The Dawn of the World (Illustrated Edition)

Clinton Hart Merriam (1855-1942) was an American zoologist, ornithologist, entomologist and ethnographer. In 1886, he became the first chief of the Division of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy of the United States Department of Agriculture. He was one of the original founders of the National Geographic Society in 1888. He developed the "life zones" concept to classify biomes found in North America. In 1899, he helped railroad magnate E. H. Harriman to organize an exploratory voyage along the Alaska coastline. Later in life, funded by the Harriman family, Merriam's focus shifted to studying and assisting the Native American tribes in the western United States. His contributions on the myths of central California and on ethnogeography were particularly noteworthy. His works include: Life Zones and Crop Zones of the United States (1898) and The Dawn of the World (1910).