You have to back that up with a lot of other sciences, of course.

I'm interested in them all.
Terry was strong on facts--geography and meteorology and those; Jeff could beat him any time on biology, and I didn't care what it was they talked about, so long as it connected with human life, somehow.

There are few things that don't.
We three had a chance to join a big scientific expedition.

They needed a doctor, and that gave Jeff an excuse for dropping his just opening practice; they needed Terry's experience, his machine, and his money; and as for me, I got in through Terry's influence.
The expedition was up among the thousand tributaries and enormous hinterland of a great river, up where the maps had to be made, savage dialects studied, and all manner of strange flora and fauna expected.
But this story is not about that expedition.

That was only the merest starter for ours.
My interest was first roused by talk among our guides.