Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
He had only to wait now, and this journey would be over. But he looked
toward the land and thought about the inland sea that must exist just behind
those coastal mountains, a sea that would mimic the much later Sea of
Cortez, which he knew to be filled with giant reefs of clams, not corals, and
with ammonites from Texas, such as the great snail-like
Didymoceras
and
Nostoceras,
and with the largest ammonites of western North America,
Pachydicus catarinae,
named for a tiny fishing village in Baja California. He
knew the future Rosario formation of Baja lay only a short distance to the
east ("but west by my compass," he laughed to himself)—inland, anyway,
into the heart of the North American continent—and he thought he could
get there easily and see dinosaurs to boot, realizing a final dream. But who
would ever know about these wonders? He could never return to his own
time if he took that voyage. He would learn much, even if he lived only an-
other day here. But was it worth it to know the answet to a question if you
could never tell any other human about it? Was science simply learning the
answer? Or was dissemination of the results a vital part as well?
As he settled into the cockpit, he reflected on such matters and on
everything he had seen during his time travels. The informed imagination,
he decided, may be the best time machine of all.