THE 
AMERICAN NATURALIST. 
VoL. xur. — MARCH, 1879. — No. 3. 
. REMARKS ON FOSSIL SHELLS FROM THE COLO- 
RADO DESERT: 
BY ROBERT. E. C. STEARNS. 
LUMP of earth from the Colorado Desert which it is here 
proposed to investigate, is not without interest. It is part of 
a much larger piece recently brought from Walter’s station, a 
point on the Southern Pacific railroad, in California, where it was 
selected by Prof. Geo. Davidson, who has furnished the special 
facts as to locality. 
It is composed of clayey sediment, and was brought to the 
surface, from near the bottom of a well recently sunk by the rail- 
road company at the above named place, during the process of 
digging through the dry deposit in a forty-inch tubing (an old 
smokestack). At forty-five to forty-seven feet the water-bearing 
stratum was struck, when the water burst up and filled the tube 
to within twelve feet of the surface. The continuous pumping — 
out of a two and a-half inch stream does not lower the water 
line in the well. The lump, it will be noticed, contains many 
small shells. The larger portion of the original piece readily dis- 
solved in hot water, in which it at once separated. Thinking it 
might contain diatoms or other minute microscopic forms, some 
of it was examined by Dr. A. M. Edwards, without, however, 
any being detected. The shells, though small, are easily ‘seen 
without a lens, are all Deharit: forms and are also faa a 
1 Read before the California Academy of Sciences. 
VOL, XIII.—NO, III. 10 
