42 TARR AND MARTIN CHANGES OF LEVEL IN YAKUTAT REGION 



at a distance of 2 or 3 miles, giving the appearance of a whitewashed rock 

 surface (see plate 18, figure 1). In places it still extends below the 

 water, but in two or three sections it has been hoisted entirely out of the 

 sea. Usually the top and bottom borders are fairly horizontally in defini- 

 tion; and the painted appearance of the rocks is recognized even by the 

 natives as an evidence of uplift. This whitened surface is seen especially 

 clearly south of Turner glacier, though it is visible in several other parts 

 of the inlet. Abundant fossils, especially Mytilus (see plate 18, figure 1) 

 and Balanus, occur in the whitened zone and generally extend several 

 feet above it. 



OTHER MARINE ORGANISMS 



The only other marine animal found clinging to the uplifted shorelines, 

 in such a position as to leave no question of its being in place, was the 

 limpet (Acnicea pelta, Esch.). In a few instances the limpet shells were 

 found still adhering to the rock in little protected pockets; but most of 

 those observed on the high level shorelines were not in place and might 

 therefore have been carried up by birds or washed up. The same is true 

 of fragments of crabs, skeletons of fishes, and both fragments and perfect 

 specimens of sea-urchins (Strongylocentrotus drbbachiensis, Mull.). 

 Lying loose along uplifted shorelines they are not absolute evidence of 

 change of level; but their abundance and association with other indis- 

 putable biological evidence (notably barnacles still fastened to the rock) 

 render these other marine forms valuable as correlative evidence. A 

 more satisfactory case was the finding of several arms of a starfish 

 (Heliaster Sp.) by digging in a little rock crevice, to whose sides Mytilus 

 was adhering in abundance, on a rock bench nineteen feet above present 

 sealevel. 



A careful search failed to discover any rockweed or other marine plants 

 on any of the elevated shorelines, either loose or in place. That in six 

 years these plants should have entirely disappeared by decay was to us 

 most unexpected ; but it seems nevertheless to be the case. 



MINGLING OF LAND AND SEA LIFE 



As previously stated, vegetation has found a footing where marine 

 forms still cling to the rocks. Thus we find the unusual occupation of 

 the same area by plants which can not live in salt water and animals, still 

 in place, which can not exist without it, although all of the latter forms 

 are dead. Besides the grasses and flowering annuals, shrubs have already 

 sprung up, especially the willow and alder. These woody plants are nota- 

 bly small ones. Among numerous willows and alders which we cut down 



