Postelsia 
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rock are fossils of a relatively recent type. Mol- 
lusks not distantly related to the ancestral types 
of the mussels now swarming the rock shelves 
of the coast then lived and contributed their 
shells to the coastal detritus of their day. Thus 
fragments of shale, crystalline grains of quartz 
and fossil fragments accumulated and laid down 
a bed of Miocene sandstone hundreds of feet in 
thickness. It covered the surface of the ancient 
shale formation, uneven with high knobs, rough 
and wave worn surfaces. Many stream channels 
and pre-Tertiary glens disclosed anew and chan- 
neled out again since the old River Fuca took its 
place among the geographic features of the 
Pacific coast, increase the interest of the Station 
student. 
The nature of the material forming this up- 
permost formation commands attention. In 
front of the Station buildings, adjoining the 
rough, harsh surface upon which we first stepped 
down, lies a coarse rock of only medium hard- 
ness. Within it are many huge boulders formed 
of great masses of broken dike material, slabs 
of shale and varied beach boulders. Binding 
