Smithsonian Handbooks: Rocks & Minerals (Smithsonian Handbooks) by Chris Pellant - Just the Photo's Ma'am. Just the Photo's.

The Smithsonian Handbook of Rocks and Minerals combines 600 vivid full--color photos with descriptions of more than 500 specimens. This authoritative and systematic photographic approach, with words never separated from pictures, marks a new generation of identification guides. Each entry combines a precise description with annotated photographs to highlight the chief characteristics of the rock or mineral and distinguishing features. Color--coded bands provide a clear, at--a--glance facts for quick reference. In addition, each mineral entry features an illustration showing the crystal system to which the mineral belongs. Designed for beginners and experienced collectors alike, the Smithsonian Handbook of Rocks and Minerals explains what rocks or minerals are, how they are classified, and how to start a collection. To help in the initial stages of rock identification, a clear visual key illustrates the differences between igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks, then guides the reader to the correct rock entry. A concise glossary provides instant understanding of technical and scientific terms

Just the Photo's Ma'am. Just the Photo's.
If you are not blind this is the book for you. Even if you are blind you could get someone else to tell you just how beautiful the photos in this book are. That is if they can catch their breath after seeing the Photo's. No 99% of the time you will not find the same item in the outdoors that you see in the book. Still if you have the chance even at 1% of finding a specimen that is even close to the photo in beauty it will be worth ten times what you have paid for this book. I have maybe three or four rocks I have found that look as good as the photos in the book. Actually I have three that are better than and one that is as good as the photo's in the book. I keep looking for even more rocks just to find them. Yes for the money I spend on Gas and tires and places to sleep and eat.I could just buy some of these rocks from a rock dealer. Still it is as I have heard and known my whole life. It is not the having it is the finding. A chunk of gold the size of a brick 2X4X8 solid 24kt. Paint it white. Or a tiny little 3 gram nugget that you found on the edge of a stream on a high mountain meadow. "Yes more than 75% of the (3)three Gram gold nuggets have yet to be found, They are still out there waiting for someone to walk along a stream and see them laying there." The day was bright and sunny with not a cloud in the sky. The only sounds were of the insect's buzzing in the grasslands and an eagle calling from a spiral in the blue sky of a Rocky Mountain morning. Which would you rather have. This book will keep you going back to those mountains and deserts and beaches and streams and and and need I continue? My wife and I dearly love this book. We have sat side by side and read and looked at the photos many times now. I know that is not what old folks that are in there late fifty's are supposed to do is it? Such is life.
dray

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