I was very moved by Ben Long’s essay on the impending extinction of Montana’s sturgeon (HCN, 9/29/03: Extinction — by the clock). His piece captured in a few words the finality of the extinction of species that link modern man to prehistory. I was reminded of the evocative words of William Beebe (1906): “The beauty and genius of a work of art may be reconceived, though its first material expression be destroyed; a vanished harmony may yet again inspire the composer; but when the last individual of a race of living things breathes no more, another heaven and another earth must pass before such a one can be again.”

Tom Meacham
Anchorage, Alaska

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Extinction is forever

by Tom Meacham, High Country News
February 2, 2004

<h1>Extinction is forever</h1> <p class="byline">by Tom Meacham, High Country News <br />February 2, 2004</p> <p>I was very moved by Ben Long’s essay on the<br /> impending extinction of Montana’s sturgeon (HCN, 9/29/03:<br /> Extinction — by the clock). His piece captured in a few words<br /> the finality of the extinction of species that link modern man to<br /> prehistory. I was reminded of the evocative words of William Beebe<br /> (1906): “The beauty and genius of a work of art may be reconceived,<br /> though its first material expression be destroyed; a vanished<br /> harmony may yet again inspire the composer; but when the last<br /> individual of a race of living things breathes no more, another<br /> heaven and another earth must pass before such a one can be again.”</p> <p><b>Tom Meacham</b><br /> Anchorage,<br /> Alaska</p> <div class="wp-block-group hcn-print-edition-box"> <p>This article appeared in the <a href="/?p=188896">print edition of the magazine</a> with the headline <span class="hcn-magtitle">Extinction is forever</span>.</p> </p></div> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info/issues/issue-267/extinction-is-forever/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info Country News&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/www.hcn.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/cropped-HCN_Logo-Monogram_White_Sq-2.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;quality=100&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=110019&amp;amp;ga4=G-0NS3WVPPTN&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info/issues/issue-267/extinction-is-forever/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/hcn.org/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;</p> Copy to Clipboard

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