Derelict
(adjective) in a very poor condition as a result of disuse and neglect.
Example: "Beyond the marsh flats and the natural canals lies the ocean and, a little farther down the coast, a derelict lighthouse" (3).
Loam
(noun) a fertile soil of clay and sand containing humus; a paste of clay and water with sand, chopped straw, etc., used in making bricks and plastering walls.
Example: "Long ago, towns had existed here, and we encountered eerie signs of human habitation: rotting cabins with sunken, red-tinged roofs, rusted wagon-wheel spokes half-buried in the dirt, and the barely seen outlines of what used to be enclosures for livestock, now mere ornament for layers of pine-needle loam" (5)"
Buffet
(verb) (especially of wind or waves) strike repeatedly and violently; batter; (of misfortunes or difficulties) afflict or harm repeatedly or over a long period
Example: "The air was so fresh it buffeted the lungs and we strained to breathe for a few seconds, mostly from surprise" (11).
Perfunctory
(adjective) (of an action of gesture) carried out with a minimum of effort or reflection
Example: "Although the idea of mapping seemed perfunctory or repetitive to me, I could not deny the existence of the tower, of which there was no suggestion on any map" (13).
Archipelago
(noun) a group of islands; a sea or stretch of water containing many islands
Example: "Sunlight came down dappled through the moss and leaves, created archipelagos of light on the flat surface of the entrance" (17-18).
Lodestone
(noun)
1. a piece of magnetite or other naturally magnetized mineral, able to be used as a magnet.
2. a thing that is the focus of attention or attraction.
Example: "My lodestone, the place I always thought of when people asked me why I became a biologist, was the overgrown swimming pool in the backyard of the rented house where I grew up" (43-44).
Brackish
(adjective) (of water) slightly salty, as is the mixture of river water and seawater in estuaries.
Example: "The water level slowly rose, fed by the rain, and the surface became more and more brackish with algae" (44).
Eschew
(verb) deliberately avoid using; abstain from
Example: "In all of this, I eschewed books on ecology or biology" (45).
Trilobite
(noun) an extinct marine arthropod that occurred abundantly during the Paleozoic era, with a carapce over the forepart, and a segmented hind part divided longitudinally into three lobes.
Example: "Certain trilobites, snails, and worms left trails simple by comparison but vaguely similar" (54).
Saprotrophic
(adjective) describing an organism that feeds on or derives nourishment from decaying organic matter
Example: "Those cells were doing a magnificent job of mimicking certain species of saprotrophic organisms" (71).
Welter
(verb)
1. (literary) move in a turbulent fashion
2. (literary) lie steeped in blood with no help or care
(noun)
1. a large number of items in no order; a confused mass
2. a state of general disorder
Example: "So I walked outside, into the welter of the stinging water, the gusting pockets of wind" (75).
Gregarious
(adjective)
1. (of a person) fond of company; sociable
2. (of animals) living in flocks or loosely organized communities
3. (of plants) growing in open clusters or in pure associations
Example: "Our relationship had been thready for a while, in part because he was gregarious and I preferred solitude" (77).
Berm
(noun)
1. a flat strip of land, raised bank, or terrace bordering a river or canal.
2. a path or grass strip beside a road.
3. an artificial ridge or embankment, e.g. as a defense against tanks.
4. a narrow space, especially one between a ditch and the base of a parapet.
Example: "As the trail became a raised berm, dull, algae-choked lakes spread out to the right and a canal flanked it to the left" (89).
Phosphoresence
(noun) light emitted by a substance without combustion or perceptible heat
Example: "The brackish quality of the light against those graying interior walls was better than the phosphorescence of the Tower, but what I found on these walls unnerved me just as much, if in a different way" (101-102).
Midden
(noun)
1. A dunghill or refuse heap.
2. a prehistoric refuse heap which marks an ancient settlement, chiefly containing bones, shells, and stone implements
Example: "No, what had me gasping for breath, what felt like a punch in the stomach as I dropped to my knees, was the huge mound that dominated the space, a kind of insane midden" (106).
Laconic
(adjective) (of a person, speech, or style of writing) using very few words
Example: "A husband and wife, childless, owned the property, and they had the kind of severely laconic quality common to the area" (107).
Taciturn
(adjective) (of a person) reserved or uncommunicative in speech; saying little
Example: "I’m sure my husband’s friends found me taciturn, or worse" (109).
Reliquary
(noun) a container for holy relics, often containing a body part of a deceased saint.
Example: "Behind me lay the increasingly solemn silhouette of what was no longer really a lighthouse but instead a kind of reliquary" (138).
Prosaic
(adjective)
1. having the style or diction of prose; lacking poetic beauty.
2. commonplace; unromantic.
Example: "In that context, when confronted with the chaos that was base camp my attitude was perhaps more prosaic than it might have been otherwise" (152).
Mote
(noun) A tiny piece of a substance.
Example: "I smelled a burning inside my own head and there came a moment when I screamed, my skull crushed to dust and reassembled, mote by mote" (181).
