Science: Snug as a Cat

In his London hotel room last week was Dr. Bailey Willis, 72-year-old geologist-emeritus of Stanford University, attache of the Carnegie Institution, scientific advisor to states and governments.* He had just returned from a 7000-mile trip through Africa. He had walked 500 miles of the way, nicking rocks, sampling gravels, speculating on the waters of the great-lake and big-game country, inspecting all "rift valleys'' to form his own theory as to whether there is a great continental split running from Abyssinia to the Jordan, and if so whether it was formed by tension (sinking)...