decided tone.

There was a pause--embarrassed on the part of the boss--he was silent
not knowing what to say. Meanwhile Steelman studied his man and
concluded that he would do.

"Having a look at the country, I suppose?" asked the boss presently.

"Yes," said Steelman; then after a moment's reflection: "I am travelling
for my own amusement and improvement, and also in the interest of
science, which amounts to the same thing. I am a member of the Royal
Geological Society--vice-president in fact of a leading Australian
branch;" and then, as if conscious that he had appeared guilty of
egotism, he shifted the subject a bit. "Yes. Very interesting country
this--very interesting indeed. I should like to make a stay here for a
day or so. Your work opens right into my hands. I cannot remember seeing
a geological formation which interested me so much. Look at the face of
that cutting, for instance. Why! you can almost read the history of the
geological world from yesterday--this morning as it were--beginning
with the super-surface on top and going right down through the different
layers and stratas--through the vanished ages--right down and back
to the pre-historical--to the very primeval or fundamental geological
formations!" And Steelman studied the face of the cutting as if he could
read it like a book, with every layer or stratum a chapter, and every
streak a note of explanation. The boss seemed to be getting interested,
and Steelman gained confidence and proceeded to identify and classify
the different "stratas and layers," and fix their ages, and describe the
conditions and politics of man in their different times, for the boss's
benefit.

"Now," continued Steelman, turning slowly from the cutting, removing
his glasses, and letting his thoughtful eyes wander casually over the
general scenery--"now the first impression that this country would leave
on an ordinary intelligent mind--though maybe unconsciously, would be
as of a new country--new in a geological sense; with patches of an older
geological and vegetable formation cropping out here and there; as for
instance that clump of dead trees on that clear alluvial slope there,
that outcrop of limestone, or that timber yonder," and he indicated a
dead forest which seemed alive and green because of the parasites. "But
the country is old--old; perhaps the oldest geological formation in the
world is to be seen here, the oldest vegetable formation in Australasia.
I am not us