370 OLDER MESOZOIC FLORAS OF UNITED STATES. 
carrying them is exactly similar. I found on Todd’s specimen the same conifer, 
obviously the counterpart of the impression on the Nickel mine specimens, but not 
exactly corresponding to them in dimension. On trying to fit the specimens together 
I found they nearly fitted. The conifer impressions occur on all the specimens on 
the side opposite to that which carries the much more distinct fern impressions. 
On this side there is a thin layer of soft, flaky shale, in which the conifer impressions 
occur. Rubbing in transportation had almost hidden the imprints previously 
obscure. Hence they were overlooked in the former examination. Either in the 
original splitting of the rock to obtain the specimens, or in subsequent transport, 
flakes of the soft shale layer carrying the coniferous imprints had been removed 
from the rock specimens, hence they do not exactly fit together, and the conifer 
imprints do not exactly correspond. 
« 
I have fully confirmed this description by a careful comparison of 
the specimens since they were returned, and I no longer doubt that 
they are all parts of the same piece of shale. They were, of course, 
probably all collected by Todd at the same time, but it might have 
happened that a subsequent collector picked up the two additional 
pieces left by Mr. Todd. 
A large number of other small collections had been made from time 
to time in Douglas County, but they were either from the marine 
shell-bearing Knoxville and Horsetown beds or from the Eocene rocks 
of that region and therefore do not concern us here, but those from 
the Cretaceous will be treated in the second paper (Part IJ) of this 
series. There was considerable confusion in the labels of all these 
plants and for a long time all the Mesozoic forms were believed to 
represent the Shasta group (Knoxville and Horsetown beds), but the 
Buck Mountain region presented some serious stratigraphical difficul- 
ties. These Professor Diller was very anxious to clear up before 
mapping the region. In 1896 he visited the.Buck Mountain district 
and made a somewhat hurried reconnaissance. A fossil-plant bed was 
discovered by Mr. James Storrs, of his party, and a small collection 
made and shipped to Washington. In transmitting this collection to 
me through the Director of the Survey he says, in his letter to the 
Director dated November 18, 1896, that the specimens ‘‘ were obtained 
from rocks which appear to underlie the Lower Cretaceous,” and adds: 
These fossils come from a locality which promises to yield a rich harvest to the 
collector. They were found too late in the day to make a more extensive collection, 
but it is hoped that enough were obtained to indicate the geological age. No other 
fossils whatever were found in the same or immediately associated strata. 
This locality is at the base of Buck Mountain on the northwest side, 
in. section 3 of the same township and range, on the tributary of 
Olallat Creek above referred to as Thompson or Hunter Creek. These 
plants came into my hands in the autumn of that year and I made a 
1 The beds at this point will for convenience be referred to as the Olalla Creek beds. Olalla is the 
Indian word for berries, the black raspberry and other berries being abundant in this region, and it is 
said that the term originally applied to the country all about the head of Olalla Creek and that all 
the streams went by that name. 
