And here I was afraid that I'd be missing out on some heart stopping microscope action, but I shouldn't have worried. Looks like Doc's all set to look at any microscopic traces of evidence that Mark brings back from the barrel pile. He's even got his chemistry set all ready to go, so you know he's serious about this (and why wouldn't he be? If I lived in Lost Forest, I certainly wouldn't want it to be known as the forest were wild animals come to die.). Now if only they could find a lab coat for him to wear...(Oh, and Mark, if what's in the barrels is indeed toxic, then I don't really think there'd be much of a question as to whether or not it's what's killing the animals. Okay, okay, I'll give the guy a break. After all, he's new to this, but you've got to step it up, my friend.) 
News of the mysterious pile of barrels in Lost Forest has pulled Doc out of the lab and he's come prepared to take all sorts of samples (or eat his lunch because it's just too nice a day to eat in the lab). While Mark takes a few more pictures, Doc gets to work collecting evidence in teeny tiny vials. (I'm not sure that bringing such tiny vials was a good idea, Doc. Wasn't there anything in the lab capable of collecting more than a thimble full of evidence. Couldn't you have at least brought along an Erlenmeyer flask? I guess not. Hope you brought plenty of the little guys, or that you don't accidentally waste any of what you collect when you get back to the lab.) And what are these mysterious agencies you speak of, Doc? Are you setting the scene for some sort of crossover? That would be kind of neat. 
Just when you think things can't get any more exciting after that scene with the microscope, and then the one with the camera and tiny vials, Mark pulls out a magnifying glass! He must be really serious about this case because he actually bothered to develop one the pictures he took. (This tells me that kidnapping bank robbers are far less interesting than a bunch of toxic barrels.) While Mark is hard at work in the Lost Forest Lab, the Jack Elrod Ball conducts his own investigation, speaking with the native wildlife about any strange disappearances or shadowy figures.
As the Jack Elrod Ball scours the forest for information, Mark comes up with a plan of his own, and I think what he probably means in that first panel is that he's going to take a rubbing from one of the barrels since to me, scraping means actually scraping the paint off of said barrels. I think that he also borrowed a few of Rusty's crayons and some pieces of loose leaf paper so that he could go all Bloodhound Gang with this case and see if he can't make the marks he saw in the photograph a little clearer. (It works, I tell you. I've had to do it on some tombstones during a genealogical investigation, and it really does make things easier to read.) Meanwhile, the Jack Elrod Ball continues to ask questions, moving from the heron of the previous strip to the beaver, hoping to get an idea of how the situation stands from both ground level and from the sky.(And on a sort of related note: you just don't hear that many people refer to it as loose leaf paper nowadays, do you? At least, I don't, but it was always in the books I read when I was younger. Fascinating.)
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