To the thousands of Rhode Islanders who rely on Narragansett Bay for business and for recreation, this magnificent body of water is a priceless inheritance.

Shaped by glacial action more than 15,000 years ago, the Bay is home to bathers and boaters, to marine life and birds of splendid coloration and form, to university researchers and concerned citizens who take its pulse with the concern and affection of a family doctor, to commerce and industry, and to fishermen of ail ages who find enjoyment or profit, or both, in probing the Bay's depths for its varied species.

Stuart 0. Hale, an eminent writer, conservationist, and university administrator, has for many years been both a Bay spectator and participant. He has lived on the Bay shore, sailed its innumerable coves and inlets, and reported on its health and proneness to storms in scores of articles in the Providence Journal-Bulletin. His book is an admiring and sentimental review of the history, status, and uses of the Bay from the perspective of a journalist and friend.

Those of us who take pride in the beauty and utility of our great estuary will find much of interest in Mr. Hale's book, including the fine selection of photographs which add so much to a fuller appreciation of the Bay.

I am very happy to commend this volume. I extend my congratulations to the author for his dedication to an obviously enjoyable task and my thanks to the University of Rhode Island Sea Grant Program for encouraging the publication of this noteworthy contribution to our knowledge of a truly priceless resource.

Claiborne Pell

United States Senate