Page:While the Billy Boils, 1913.djvu/341

 '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 lime-stone, 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, as is the oldest vegetable formation in Australia. I am not using the words old and now in an ordinary sense, you understand, but in a geological sense.'

The Boss said, 'I understand,' and that geology must be a very interesting study.

Steelman ran his eye meditatively over the cutting again, and turning to Smith said,

'Go up there, James, and fetch me a specimen of that slaty out-crop you see there―just above the coeval strata.'

It was a stiff climb and slippery, but Smith had to do it, and he did it.

'This,' said Steelman, breaking the rotten piece between his fingers, 'belongs probably to an older geological period than its position would indicate―a primitive sandstone level perhaps. Its position on that layer is no doubt due to volcanic upheavals― U