What a waste of a beautiful day it was, to spend this rare January sunny day inside the depths of a gloomy dark cave gathering springtails. Springtails, however, are important to Joseph Reznek, a graduate student at the University of Vermont, and as well, I am a very nice guy, so Joesph and I spent all day today inside McCluny Cave capturing them i. e. springtails.

Springtails are interesting little fellows; shorter than -> - <- they are hard to see, especially in a cave, but they are ubiquitous (I promise not to use the term "ubiqitous" anymore in this report . A fad word, the term today is overused everywhere. Smile.) in common soil.

But the springtails that we were after are not common in caves or outside, only one specimen of the species (Pseudosinella nata) has ever been found and that was back in the seventies in McCluny Cave (Crystal Caverns), and my job was to get Joesph in and out of McCluny cave without being killed. Not from any danger in the cave but from Lamar the Landowner, who trucks not much with strangers.

Operating on funds provided by the Cave Conservancy of the Virginias, Joesph Reznik's thesis is simple: At the outset of the last glacial period many species of springtails (or Collembola ) took refuge against the intense cold in caves and adapted to conditions there in. Therefore the amount of divergence of DNA in the cave springtails compared with their cousins on the outside of the cave should give (since glacial and interglacial periods are well-dated) a temporal frame for the rate of DNA change.
Or something like that.

As we drove to the cave I looked over at Joesph. He looked like he was Vermont. He was a snag in his early thirties sporting a bandana for hair and wearing a ring in his ear. I didn't call him a snag, he told me that he was a snag. I didn't even know what a snag was. Joesph said it was a complimentary term; an acronym for a "Sensitive New Age Guy"...sorta like Faldage.

Both Joesph and I were a bit nervous as we pulled up and stopped in front of Lamar's house. A United States flag, a larger Confererate flag, and the biggest red Marine Corps flag I had ever seen stood erect, but waved not at all, in front of Lamar's neat woodframe house. Boldly I knocked on the front door. No one opened the door but a tiny voice inside said, "Go to the back. Daddy's in the shed."

Whoever first said "Once a Marine always a Marine" was talking about Lamar. Visualize a red-headed fire hydrant with a shaved head with a handle-bar mustache with no tatoo that reads "born To Lose" and you have seen Lamar. He met Joesph and me at the door of his shop with a 45 in his hand and a smile on his face while saying,
"Hi Milo, excuse the gun, but a man can't be too careful these days."

But now, least you think Lamar a stereotype.
Lamar is sharp. He measures every word, every nuance. Say for example you wanted to have a war...you'd fare best to have Lamar to tote your guns.

Lamar's shop is quite a shop, mostly leather goods. Lamar reproduces gun straps and bridles and saddles for a contingency of Marine enthusiasts nationwide. After many southern pleasantries and reinforced assurancies by me that Lamar's well-though-out rules would not be breached, we were given seven keys and set out for the cave.

Do any of you know what is a "Military Lock"? Well we found out;the key of a Military Lock can only be removed when the lock is reclosed.

In summary, it is late, I apoligise for not finishing the fossil track puzzle today. But the track story has layers of things important, And today's events are merely on my befuddled mind.

Milo.

(below is an abbreviated version of Joesph's request.)




Dear Milo Washington,

My name is Joseph Reznik and I am a graduate student
at the University of Vermont. I have recently
been funded by the Cave Conservancy of the Virginias
to study a group of springtails that
occur in caves. I need to collect material from the
type locality for one species, Pseudosinella nata, but
I am having trouble finding the cave that it was
described from. Do you know where Crystal Cave
(Jefferson County, AL) is? I am planning on traveling
to your state at the new year and if you
would be willing to guide, I would be very appreciative.
Thanks for any help you may give.

Joseph Reznik
120A Marsh Life
University of Vermont
Burlington, VT 05405
joseph.reznik@uvm.edu