sees a Lani for the first time. Well--now you've seen some of
the livestock what do you think of them?"

"I think you should have hired a medic."

Alexander shook his head. "No--it wouldn't be reason able or legal.
You're the man for the job."

"But I've no experience with humanoid types. We didn't cover that phase
in our studies--and from their appearance they'd qualify as humans
anywhere if it weren't for those tails!"

"They're far more similar than you think," Alexander said. "It just goes
to show what parallel evolution can do. But there are differences."

"I never knew that there was indigenous humanoid life on Kardon," Kennon
continued. "The manual says nothing about it."

"Naturally. They're indigenous only to this area."

"That's impossible. Species as highly organized as that simply don't
originate on isolated islands."

"This was a subcontinent once," Alexander said. "Most of it has been
inundated. Less than a quarter of a million years ago there was over a
hundred times the land area in this region than exists today. Then the
ocean rose. Now all that's left is the mid continent plateau and a few
mountain tops. You noted, I suppose, that this is mature topography
except for that range of hills to the east. The whole land area at the
time of flooding was virtually a peneplain. A rise of a few hundred feet
in the ocean level was all that was needed to drown most of the land."

"I see. Yes, it's possible that life could have developed here under
those conditions. A peneplain topography argues permanence for hundreds
of millions of years."

"You have studied geology?" Alexander asked curiously. "Only as part of
my cultural base," Kennon said. "Merely a casual acquaintance."

"We think the Lani were survivors of that catastrophe--and with their
primitive culture they were unable to reach the other land masses,"
Alexander shrugged. "At any rate they never established themselves
anywhere else."

"How did you happen to come here?"

"I was born here," Alexander said. "My grandfather discovered this world
better than four hundred years ago. He picked this area because it all
could be comfortably included in Discovery Rights. It wasn't until years
afterward that he realized the ecological peculiarities of this region."

"He certainly capitalized on them."

"There was plenty of opportunity. The plants and animals here are
different from others in this world. Like Australia in reverse."

Kennon lo