GEOLOGICAL PAPERS. 103 



afforded the best and most remunerative collecting ground. Each 

 day, as the time-varying tide slowly receded, found me at my post, 

 following up the water's edge, hunting up and digging out the fossils 

 as fast as exposed to view, placing them on raised blocks of clay (dug 

 up for the purpose ) or on one of the many hard concretions left 

 standing from a foot to five feet high to drain and partially dry. At 

 the turn of the tide, driven back by the now incoming waves, one 

 often finds himself knee-deep in the surf before the last fragment of 

 bone belonging to some rare beast, left on the raised pedestal to dry, 

 has been placed in safety in the collecting bag, then on to the next 

 pile of bones, always in a hurry to beat the oncoming waves, and so 

 on until all the fossils previously dug out are safely cared for. These 

 are then carried to camp, perhaps ten miles away, on horseback, dried 

 out, well soaked with a thin solution of gum arable, again thoroughly 

 dried, and lastly carefully packed, not forgetting to put a plenteous 

 supply of cotton batting around the more exposed parts. 



During the very high tides great care must be taken to have in 

 view a place of safety for one's self and horse against the incoming 

 tide. Several times I have had to lead my horse with great difficulty 

 up the steep banks to some little ledge for safety, there to wait from two 

 to three hours for the falling of the tide, which would allow us to pass 

 along at the foot of the cliffs to one of the very few places, often 

 miles apart, where it is possible for a horse to climb to the pampas 

 above. 



Twenty miles north of Cape Fairweather, as illustrated in plate 

 IX, the ujDpermost formation is the so-called shingle, composed of 

 water- worn pebbles, intermixed with sand and clay, forming a layer 

 of varying thickness of from 2 to 100 feet, which covers nearly the 

 whole of Patagonia. Beneath this are the Cape Fairweather beds, of 

 Pliocene age. These are of marine origin, composed of a reddish 

 sandstone, thirty to thirty- five feet in thickness, literally packed in 

 places with a rich and varied collection of invertebrate remains — 

 brachiopods, gastropods, and oysters of giant size, of which a good 

 series was secured. Below these lie the Santa Cruz beds, composed 

 of many different colored stratified clay sand sandstones, of fresh- 

 water origin, the colors varying from blue to brown and gray, the 

 grayish white predominating. 



The period of the explorations was unfortunately cut much shorter 

 than anticipated, owing to our being two months later in the field 

 than intended, and on account of the severe winter setting in, making 

 it impossible to collect on the cold, wet beach. Consequently, in 

 June, everything was packed, and shipped via Punta Arenas to New 

 York. The first week in June we bade farewell to this land of strange 

 living and fossil mammals and birds, and sailed away on our home- 



