50 The Ottawa Naturalist. [June 



The bluffs approach them closely, and the intervenihg" flats are 

 largely salt marsh. A few miles farther down is Yaquina, once a 

 thriving seaport, but now a very poor community. This is the 

 terminus of the railroad, and, as it is not far from the open coast 

 and furnishes fair accommodations, I made it my stopping" place. 

 The village lies mostly on a narrow mud flat, nearly all of the 

 houses being built on piles, so that during high tide the occupants 

 can look out of their windows into the water, while at low tide 

 they have a vista of mud spread before their eyes. 



In the immediate vicinity of Yaquina are ranges of hills, 

 covered with a growth of coniferous and other timber, badly dam- 

 aged from fires. Of the fauna of this district it is not my inten- 

 tion to write, since it partakes of the ordinary nature of such 

 locations on the north coast. The beach proper is near Newport, 

 which lies at the south of the bay, and can be reached from 

 Yaquina by a steamboat, making daily trips, or by a walk of a few 

 miles along the shore when the tide permits. My general plan 

 was to go over on the steamer and walk back, as this gave me a 

 longer day than I could get in any other way. The beaches are 

 several miles in length and are backed by great bluffs which come 

 within a few rods of the water's edge, their faces precipitous for 

 the most part, except where the drifting sand has modified the 

 contour. The highlands back from the bluffs are extremely sandy 

 and covered with a growth of dense scrub, with open patches here 

 and there. In the distance are groves of conifers. 



A number of small springs ooze from the face of the bluffs 

 and trickle for some distance over the sands at the base. Many 

 species of beetles favor just such spots, which off^er, in conse- 

 quence, a fine field for the collector. Cicindela oregona runs and 

 flies about these damp sands, in company with one of the forms of 

 Bembidium littorale. By overturning small pieces of wood and 

 other rubbish, I took quite a series of Omophroyi ovale, Bembidium 

 transversale and Nebria diversa, the last named being a rather un- 

 common species in collections and differing by its curious pale 

 color from most of our other Nebrice. Where the water had 

 spread out a good deal, I found a rather large Dyschirius in some 

 abundance, either running about in the sunshine or burrowing 

 under the sand among the runways of Bledins oriiatiis. I saw on 



