CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME. 175 



well aware. One such instance Avas observed by the writer on June 1 

 of the present year, when along more than a mile of the beach just 

 south of Pismo large masses of fresh oil were found scattered over 

 the wet sand exposed at low tide. The appearance at two points is 

 shown by the accompanying photographs, from which the size and 

 abundance of the oil cakes may be judged. In fact, at this time it 

 was impossible for a bather to cross the beach without getting so 

 much oil on his feet as to make a gasoline footbath necessary. Many 

 old cakes well mixed with sand and free of the thinner oils may be 

 seen at any time high up on the beach, showing that the occurrence 

 is by no means rare. On the date mentioned the lighter parts of the 

 oil, churned up by the surf into an emulsion, were found sweeping 

 back and forth across the sand at the tip of the advancing waves, 

 and in this were large numbers of small animals either dead or so 

 feeble as no longer to be able to burrow. About a quart of small 

 clams, chiefly razor shells (Siliqua), but including some thirty small 

 Pismo clams (Tivela), together with a few sand crabs (Emerita) and 

 some worms were picked up in a few minutes. All Avere smeared with 

 oil; some of the clams were dead and gaping, others were alive, but 

 too feeble to keep up the constant burrowing necessary to maintain 

 their place in the sand from which the waves had washed them. 

 AAHiether the oil killed them directly or, what is more probable, by 

 filming over the sand cut off the supply of air, could not be deter- 

 mined. But that they were killed by the oil can not be doubted, as 

 examination of the beaches for two or three weeks before and after 

 this date seldom showed even a single dead clam except in the 

 presence of oil. 



With this clear proof of the destructive effect of the oil on such an 

 important food animal as the Pismo clam, there can be no excuse for 

 tolerating the escape of oil, especially as it has been proved possible 

 by devices in use on many tankers not only to prevent its escape, but 

 to save the oil thus usually lost. 



