>>> But does Twain's use of environmental evidence (among other kinds of evidence) to indict imperialism demonstrate environmental awareness in the same sense as John Muir, John Burroughs, or Rachel Carson? <<< Twain's attention to aborginines might demonstrate a broader environmental awareness, but my point was simply that his writings on the subject appeared in a broader range of writings than Barb's correspondent had identified. Comparisons of his descriptive writings with those of Muir, Burroughs and Carson would miss much of what he wrote on environmental subjects. I don't know what a comprehensive study would reveal, but some writings, like his commentary on the dingo with the identification of the reasons they were hunted and headed for extinction, are similar to writings of the period that made the environmental movement a new, Progressive Era reform movement. Environmental issues were seen as not just a matter of nature taking its course but the results of human action, and both non-governmental organizations like the Sierra Club and new government agencies like the Forestry Department were created in the 1890s and early 1900s to address them. The "Anti-Noise Society" mentioned by Barb is another example of how these concerns took organizational shape during the Progressive Era. Organizations like Dan Beard’s Sons of Daniel Boone and Boy Pioneers and Ernest Thompson Seton’s Woodcraft Indians, as well as many projects to bring urban children out of the cities during the summers, also fed into the development of the environmental movement and creation and use of parks and other "nature reserves" during that era. Some of those projects were active on the Lower East Side of Manhattan (where they also addressed the urban environment held responsible for widespread tuberculosis) while Twain was president of the board of directors of the Children's Educational Theater so he was likely aware of them. Jim Zwick