The Pocket Forests are small, isolated forests on Darwin IV, encountered in both the Planitia Australis and the Planitia Borealis, and even in the Sinus Columbus. Evidence in the form of countless fossilized tree stumps scattered throughout the plains had lead the First Darwinian Expedition's chief botanist, Dr. Dorothea Kay the human, to postulate that Darwin IV was once a far warmer and more humid planet. At present the pocket forests account for only about five percent of Darwin IV's surface vegetation; even so, they presented the Expedition with its greatest challenge of exploration. Giant plaque-bark trees, with their massive trunks and twisted boughs surrounded by dense underbrush, made penetrating the forests via hovercone impossible. They had to content themselves with following th