The Stone Quarry . 9 



ments of an ancient sea beach. This frag- 

 ment here photographed is twenty-two inches 

 in length and sixteen inches in breadth. The 

 twelve or fifteen large shells of the print are 

 of the family Mactridae, one of which is so 

 well represented in this tablet of stone in the 

 genus Mulina, a form that was very abun- 

 dant along the coast when this beach was 

 formed. A handsome elliptical shell, the Tel- 

 lina, is represented in the plate by eight or 

 ten impressions, some of which are distinct 

 enough to give a good idea, not only of the 

 shell form, but revealing the minute lines of 

 its growth or its ornaments. Two or three 

 straight impressions are made by the frag- 

 ments of the genus Solen, a razor clam which 

 was an abundant shell on the Pacific coast 

 of those times. In addition to these bivalves 

 the reader may notice three or four snail like 

 shells of the family of the Naticidae. These 

 two were abundant on those ancient sea 

 beaches of which this piece of rock is a frag- 

 ment, having been taken from a ledge of 

 sand stone in the foothills of the southern 



