The intrepid men who braved tough terrain, horrendous weather, and hostile Indians to explore the American Northwest were said to "have sand," meaning they had the grit to survive. In this collection of 11 essays, those men, from Lewis and Clark to the lesser-known Sylvester and James Pattie, are chronicled in concise and lively prose. The essays, by a professor of zoology whose avocation is western history, are written for a general audience, and primarily provide the basic biographical facts of the principals. And as the men whose lives are chronicled essentially mapped and discovered what lay between St. Louis and the Pacific, the book, read in its totality, also serves as a good general introduction to early western exploration. The essays are serious and informative, but given the characters portrayed, the book is also replete with lively tales, including John Colter's legendary escape from the Blackfeet and Jedediah Smith's fabled encounter with a grizzly, which won him the sobriquet of "The Toughest Man Alive." --Robert McNamara