Mitsuitei was forced to admit that the formation appeared to be natural.

He did not seem as disheartened by the discovery as might have been expected. He simply waited for more cores, his narrow face reflecting nothing but the utter absorption Lampert knew he experienced whenever a problem arose in his line. In spite of his apparent tendency to jump to conclusions, Takehiko Mitsuitei was an experienced and respected member of his profession. Lampert knew enough about his record to be perfectly willing to accept his instructions for the present.

A series of holes was drilled, from the original position toward one of the "streets" forty yards away from it. After each the archaeologist admitted with perfect cheerfulness that there was nothing inconsistent with the idea that the hill was a perfectly natural formation. He still insisted, however, that the regular lines of trees, reinforced as they were by the undergrowth pattern, required explanation.

Lampert admitted this, but felt that he knew what the explanation would be. After all, volcanic residue is more than likely to contain the trace elements vegetation requires, even on Viridis.

Finally the time came to get verification—or the opposite. The flamethrower had to be used this time, and for several minutes clouds of steam swirled about the men as its blue-white tongue fought the sappy, rain-soaked undergrowth. Then the mole and its controls were wheeled into place, and the little robot once more nosed its way out of sight.

"I don't suppose you want any samples above the regular rock level, do you?" asked Lampert as the machine disappeared.

"I think it would be best if we took them as usual," was the reply. "For one thing, we should try to learn the depth at which the soil composition changes—we are at least agreed that it changes in some manner, after all."

"True enough." The geophysicist set his controls, and the process continued—a process familiar now to McLaughlin as well as the scientists, for the guide had caught numerous glimpses of what was going on while he prowled about the work area on self-imposed guard duty.

Mitsuitei took the crumbly soil cores as they came, examined them quickly—they were arriving every few seconds—and filed them in numbered compartments in a specimen case he had opened. Detailed stratigraphy would come later. For some time there was no gross evidence of change in the soil; not, in 

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