run into hard rock near the surface, we'll have to drill holes for
blasting-shots."

"The drilling machinery goes into one of those prefabricated sheds,"
Eldra considered. "Will there be room in it for all the bitts, too?"

Kalvar Dard shrugged. "Maybe. If not, we'll cut poles and build racks
for them outside. The bitts are nono-steel; they can be stored in the
open."

"If there are poles to cut," Olva added.

"I'm not worrying about that," Kalvar Dard replied. "We have a pretty
fair idea of conditions on Tareesh; our astronomers have been making
telescopic observations for the past fifteen centuries. There's a pretty
big Arctic ice-cap, but it's been receding slowly, with a wide belt of
what's believed to be open grassland to the south of it, and a belt of
what's assumed to be evergreen forest south of that. We plan to land
somewhere in the northern hemisphere, about the grassland-forest line.
And since Tareesh is richer in water that Doorsha, you mustn't think of
grassland in terms of our wire-grass plains, or forests in terms of our
brush thickets. The vegetation should be much more luxuriant."

"If there's such a large polar ice-cap, the summers ought to be fairly
cool, and the winters cold," Varnis reasoned. "I'd think that would mean
fur-bearing animals. Colonel, you'll have to shoot me something with a
nice soft fur; I like furs."

Kalvar Dard chuckled. "Shoot you nothing, you can shoot your own furs.
I've seen your carbine and pistol scores," he began.