GEOGRAPHIC NOTES 



A FOSSIL EGG 



IN the American Journal of Science for 

 November there is an article upon 

 one of the most interesting events in the 

 world — the discovery of a fossil egg with 

 its contents practically intact but con- 

 verted into bitumen — a veritable ro- 

 mance of reality, which even the techni- 

 cal language of the scientific expert can 

 not rob of interest. Oh for the pen of a 

 ready writer! What a fascinating story, 

 yet absolutely true, could be hatched 

 out of that egg ! 



A prospector, examining the stones 

 in the Gila River in Arizona, came upon 

 a water-worn pebble 4 or 5 inches in 

 diameter. He cracked off a fragment 

 with his pick and discovered a fossil 

 egg inside. The specimen fell into the 

 hands of a gentleman in California who 

 has now brought it to the attention of 

 scientific experts. He has loaned it for 

 examination to the California Univer- 

 sity, and the November number of the 

 American Journal of Science contains 

 photographs of it and a technical ac- 

 count of the result of the examination. 

 The chief point of interest from a sci- 

 entific point of view is the fact that the 

 contents of the egg have been converted 

 into a bituminous substance resembling 

 asphalt, thus supporting the hypothesis 

 that bitumen is derived from animal re- 

 mains. 



The egg is quite large — as large as 

 that of a duck or goose — and resembles 

 most closely the egg of a cormorant. It 

 is so perfectly preserved as to show that 

 it must have been completely imbedded 

 very shortly after it was laid in the sub- 

 stance that afterwards consolidated into 

 limestone. Thus we have a snapshot 

 photograph of an event that happened 

 hundreds of thousands of years ago. A 

 bird of the size of a cormorant or goose 

 laid this precious egg, which by some 

 mischance tumbled into the water, or at 

 all events into the soft ooze of which 



limestone is formed, with sufficient force 

 to become completely imbedded in the 

 ooze and thus protected. For countless 

 years this ooze continued to be formed 

 on top, and at last the whole became 

 consolidated into limestone. Then the 

 limestone was lifted from its watery bed 

 by volcanic or other action and became 

 a portion of a mountain range. Then 

 erosion began. Through the agencies 

 of frost and rain, sunshine and cold, 

 fragments of limestone were broken off, 

 until at last the egg w 7 as reached, and 

 the fragment containing it fell into one 

 of the gullies that feed the Gila River. 

 There, in flood time, it was rolled over 

 and over, amid a multitude of other 

 stones, small and large, until all its 

 angles were rubbed off and it became a 

 water- worn pebble in a mountain stream, 

 moving ever downward when the floods 

 came in sufficient volume to stir it from 

 its resting place, and then a prospector, 

 searching for gold or other mineral, 

 found it and cracked it with his geologic 

 pick, exposing one end of the egg. 

 What a wonderful history ! But still 

 more wonderful is the thought of the 

 thousands and thousands of years that 

 must have elapsed between the day when 

 the egg fell into the water and became 

 imbedded and the day when it next met 

 the light, as a fossil, in the hands of a 

 man. 



WEALTH OF ALASKA 



THE resources of Alaska are con- 

 tinually surprising the world as 

 the exploration of the territory pro- 

 ceeds. A geologist of the U. S. Geo- 

 logical Survey, Mr A. J. Collier, who' 

 spent the past summer examining the 

 coal deposits of the Arctic coast of 

 Alaska, near Cape Lisburne, reports 

 that they are much thicker, more numer- 

 ous and extensive than has been gener- 

 ally supposed. Of the two coal-bearing 

 formations the Mesozoic, which has been 



