An absorbing, first-person account of the migration of the gray whale from the breeding lagoons along the Pacific coast of Baja California to the Alaskan summer feeding grounds. Russell interweaves his own travels with commentary on natural history, conservation, and history of exploitation. Charles Melville Scammon, the author and whaler who discovered the gray whale breeding lagoons in the 1850s, figures prominently in the tale, which concludes with the successful effort to block a salt mining operation at one of the lagoons.  (BJA32, $27.00)