Irons in the fire / [electronic resource] John McPhee.

Irons in the fire -- Release -- In virgin forest -- The gravel page -- Duty of care -- Rinard at Manheim -- Travels of the rock.

The differing contents of this book reflect the variety in the overall span of master observer McPhee's work. Irons in the Fire concerns catlle rustling in contemporary Nevada. The Gravel Page is about forensic geology--a science used to help solve major crimes and puzzles on an even greater scale. Rinard at Manheim is an experimental story about an auction of exotic cars. Items as unlikely as a virgin forest in central New Jersey and a mountain of forty-four million scrap tires in California shape the scenes and substance of other pieces. Not to mention Plymouth Rock: Travels of the Rock, about a day when the State of Massachusetts had to call in a mason to repair the nation's most hallowed lithic relic, is a blend of colonial history, paleogeography, radiometric dating, societal drift, tectonic theory, schoolkids, and Mayflower descendants in leather jackets and one-way shades.--From publisher description.