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107EXT. SWAMP - LATER

Mike Owen holds a handful of peat. Kaufman looks at it.

MIKE OWEN

The oldest carbon dating they've done on

any of the peat out here is fifty-seven

hundred years. That's with carbon-14.

That's in the right age where you can

really date things accurately with carbon-

14, because it's half-life is fifty-five

hundred years, so they must have found

have of it gone and figured that...

KAUFMAN

Why isn't it wet? Orlean wrote about

wading through black, corrosive water.

She said it was the scariest experience

of her life. And when I spoke to you on

the phone, you said wear heavy boots,

long pants and...

MIKE OWEN

There's usually water. We've been going

through a bit of a drought. Say, have

you seen that movie, Medicine Man?

That's a good movie about protecting

nature. It shows there could be

something important in a rain forest we

don't even know about, like a cure for

cancer.

KAUFMAN

It's not even hot. I was expecting it to

be awful. Sun beating down, wading

through water, looking out for snakes,

wild hogs. I was thinking it would be

dramatic. Alligators. Something!

MIKE OWEN

The alligators are over by the lakes.

The temperature's a blessing for us.

This time of year can get uncomfortably

hot.

(pointing excitedly)

Green anole. Florida's most common.

Kaufman looks down and sees a plain-looking little lizard hanging on a tree. Mike Owen jots it down in his notebook.

MIKE OWEN (cont'd)

I try to keep a log of sightings.