Our fantasy land...			...Part I
			by Jim Easterday

The mists starts to lift from the swamp. It is hot and humid and it is only early morning. It will warm to 35 degrees C by afternoon, black clouds will form and the rain will pour down for an hour or two. A loud splash in the fetid water as a large armored fish chases a newly-hatched alligator. Gray volcanic dust covers the surface of the water and leaves of the cycads, gingkos and horsetails. The wind has changed today and the plumes of ash from several volcanoes to the south are drifting toward the ocean ten miles to the west. A loud squawk, a flying reptile with leathery wings three feet across floats overhead on the warm updrafts. Small crude-looking birds with bald heads fly from tree to tree feeding on large moths with wings 10 inches across.

Our tropical swamp

There's a heavy crunch in the thick ferns along the water's edge and a dinosaur steps off the bank into the water to feed on the thick water plants. It pushes it's head under the water, grabs a mouthful of green then lifts its head high in the air, smells the air and looks carefully around. There's a pack of predator dinosaurs in the neighbourhood, each eight-foot high, quick on two legs, with a mouthful of teeth and a hungry look.

Tropical shells show on local sites like this

There's a muffled boom in the distance as one of the local volcanoes is torn apart by the pressure of lava that streams down it's slope, covering trees, hills and swamps with molten glowing rock. It's just another day in Houston. Sounds fantastic? A dream or a nightmare? Not really - Houston, Smithers, Burns Lake, Hazelton and the land that your home sits on probably looked like our swamp about 120 million years ago.