A desert mermaid living in an oasis seeks to save her people by rediscovering the forgotten songs of their ancestors.

Maiden dreams and catfish schemes form a mermaid tale it seems.This captivating legend sparks the imagination and tells the story of a Native American maiden who makes a deal with a talking catfish to win her heart's desire. Timeless lessons of being patient, trusting carefully, and making wise choices flow just below the surface.

Traces the history of outdoor sculpture in Texas, and features brief descriptions of over eight hundred works, each with the artist's name, birth date, and nationality, the sculpture's date, type, size, material, location, and source of funding, and comments. Grouped by city.

Mermaid Statues and the Stories, Legends and Mythology that inspired them. 192 pages all about mermaids, with hundreds of photographs.

Salado, a small village in Central Texas, enjoys a classic history. One of the first colleges in the state of Texas was founded at Salado. One of the village's first homes was a 22-room Classic Revival plantation house, which still sits today in the midst of a ranch covering several thousand acres. Other stately homes soon followed, many of them bearing historical markers today. Herds of cattle followed the Chisholm Trail across the spring-fed waters of Salado Creek. Dusty cowhands rested and ate their fill at the old Shady Villa Hotel. The stage stops at the hotel always brought excitement and, occasionally, renowned visitors such as Stephen F. Austin, Gen. Sam Houston, and Gen. Robert E. Lee.

In 1502, Christopher Columbus named Costa Rica, and while gold and silver never materialized to justify the moniker of rich coast in purely economic terms, scientists and ecotravelers alike have long appreciated its incredible wealth. Wealth in Costa Rica is best measured by its biodiversityhome to a dizzying number of plants and animals, many endemic, it s a country that has long encouraged and welcomed researchers from the world over, and is exemplary in the creation and commitment to indigenous conservation and management programs. Costa Rica is considered to have the best preserved natural resources in Latin America. Approximately nine percent (about 1,000,000 acres) of Costa Rica has been protected in 15 national parks, and a comparable amount of land is protected as wildlife refuges, forest reserves or Indian reservations. This long-awaited synthesis of Costa Rican ecosystems is an authoritative presentation of the paleoecology, biogeography, structure, conservation, and sustainable use of Costa Rica s ecosystems. It systematically covers the entire range of Costa Rica s natural and managed, terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems, including its island systems (Cocos Islands), the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and shores (coasts, coral reefs, mangrove forests), its lowlands (dry, season and wet forests), its highlands (the northern volcanoes and southern Talamanca s), and its estuaries, rivers, lakes, swamps and bogs. The volume s integrated, comprehensive format will be welcomed by tropical and temperate biologists alike, by biogeographers, plant and animal ecologists, marine biologists, conservation biologists, foresters, policy-makers and all scientists, natural history specialists and all with an interest in Costa Rica s ecosystems."