The Invasion of Marcia Lake

The Invasion of Marcia Lake purports to be a fable that is told to a Naturalist from the United Kingdom who, nearly at the same time, chances upon two life-altering discoveries. The first is finding the whereabouts of the definitive ancient Volume on Taxonomy, "The Taxonomic Compendium of Eighteen Thirty-five", a huge tome, illustrated with hundreds of line engravings, and containing the most complete listings of all known Science pertaining to Nature from that time period. The second is that he soon meets and is able to speak with a group representing Nature and its many dozens of different species. The T.C. of 1835 is in the hands of a Naturalist living on a houseboat in Florida, who has contacted our narrator-translator in the "Scilly Isles", a man who is himself a famous Scientist/ Naturalist/ Linguist named Dr. Carlton Lyme, of Cornwall, England. He is related to both Charles Darwin and Carl Linneaus, and he arrives in the States to review the authenticity of the T.C. of 1835. While there, he explores the wildlife in the nearby swampy marshland by rowboat, (he is at heart a Naturalist), and makes the startling discovery that his linguistic research specialty, that of the ancient Cornish language is spoken by a Community of Inhabitants, as he refers to them.