Astounding Science Fiction (British edition) — page 44: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

42 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION trunks, among those investigated be- fore, and began nipping at them with long pointed jaws. The rest stood aside and waited. Shortly one nibbly left the trunk he’d been working on; it was partly gnawed through, but Chang couldn’t see how deep the gash was. Then an- other left his work to stand with the rest. The remaining one kept at it for over half a minute longer. Chang noticed that the trunk he was gnawing did not belong to the same organism as the first two. There was a sudden sharp crack, then seconds later, several more. On the ground, the nibblies were all in one group again now. They stood calmly and watched. Twenty meters above them, the great plants swayed and lashed in a complex pattern, which abruptly became simple: the two which had been severed disentangled themselves, as if deliberately, and slipped down, depositing themselves noisily on the forest floor. The re- maining plants swayed a while longer, then subsided. The nibblies scattered themselves among the ruins of the trees they had felled and munched quietly at the long slender leaves. *“No fuss at all,’ commented Balch, as smugly as if he’d taught them the routine. “A few minutes’ work, and down they came.’ “How difficult is it?” “Can’t tell. Think we should try it ourselves to get an idea?” “Maybe. You wouldn’t want a whole section of forest dropping on your heads if you bungled, though.” “T think if we bungled the most likely thing would be that the trees we'd cut would just stay up there, supported by the others around them. We'll have plenty of chance to take movies of the process now, anyway, with the nibblies operating so close to the ship.” Chang started. “Say, that’s right! When did they—” Balch’s smile for some reason ir- ritated Chang. “Just so,” he said. “The first three days, every herd Ranji and I got near in our helicopter would scatter so fast we couldn’t get a good look. The fourth day after we left the ship—Day 6 after landing— we saw two herds, one in an area we'd covered before and the other far from here; they ignored us. Days 7 and 8, we landed and took movies and even one captive; they ignored us. This morning—Day 10—the nib- blies seem to have decided the grass is green in our back yard. What made them change their mind?” “Yeah. And how do they com- municate such decisions from one herd to another—if they do?’ She was going to go on, but realized some- one else had come up behind them. She turned. Frank Streloff stood there with his hands on his hips and a nervous grin on his round, flushed face. “Nice day!” he said. “Certainly is,” said Balch. “Here, it’s always a nice day.” “So far,’ Chang added. “‘Ah-ha! The pessimists we have always with us,”’ said Streloff. “Well,” Balch drawled, staring contentedly at the towering jungle around them, “we don’t have much reason so far for pessimism. Ranji and I have covered a considerable area without seeing more than two storms, both on the coast. We’re leaving for three days in the winter hemisphere—”’ “When?” asked Chang. “Tomorrow. We'll see if the weath- er’s any worse there. Shouldn’t be much different; Four’s axis is hardly inclined at all. We still don’t under- stand this planet’s climate, though. connicloooks. conn