Paleontology

"This is her knowledge, her field they call it. And it is like a field, you can walk through it and around it and say: These are the boundries. She knows why the dinosaurs do so many things they do, and about the rest she can deduce, make educated guesses. But north of the field history begins and the fog takes over. It's like being far-sighted, the distant lake and its beaches and smooth-backed basking sauropods clear-edged in the moonlight, her own hand a blur. She does not know, for instance, why she is crying. "

- Margaret Atwood, Life Before Man