“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 looked blank, and Alexander chuckled. “Australia was a subcontinent on Earth,” he explained. “Its ecology, however, was exceedingly primitive when compared with the rest of the planet. Flora’s on the contrary, was—and is—exceedingly advanced when compared with other native life forms on Kardon.”      

       “Your grandfather stumbled on a real bonanza,” Kennon said.     

       “For which I’m grateful,” Alexander grinned. “It’s made me the biggest operator in this sector of the galaxy. For 

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