658 OREGON AND NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. 
lusca, minute Polythalamia, besides the legs of a Crustacean, an 
Kchinoderm, the remains of four species of fish, and some Cetacean 
vertebre. The descriptions of the species, as far as determined, are 
given in the Appendix. 
This formation abounds in fossil wood, either silicified or carbon- 
ized. Stumps of trees and large trunks are occasionally found, and 
near Astoria, where it is common, it is called by the Indians stzck- 
stone. We met with it on the California trip ; and at one encampment, 
just above the bay of San Francisco, a mass was laid hold of by one 
of our party with the intention of using it for kindling. Near the Cas- 
cades it is very abundant. A specimen of the basaltic conglomerate 
collected there by Mr. Drayton contains a large piece of fossil wood ; 
and the scattered fragments of that region probably came from the 
same formation. A stump, three feet in diameter, projects six feet out 
of the soil, in the vicinity of the Cascades. About forty miles above 
the forks of the Columbia, on the north branch, a long trunk of a 
silicified tree projects from the face of the precipice, at a height beyond 
the reach of anything but a rifle-ball. The rifle has been used to 
collect specimens of it, and its fossil nature was thus proved. It is 
described as lying between layers of the basaltic rock, and it is pro- 
bably imbedded in an intervening layer of basaltic conglomerate. 
Many of the specimens are very beautifully agatized, and the woody 
structure is distinctly retained. Some of the wood was thickly worm- 
eaten before being petrified, and it now contains vermiform pieces of 
chalcedony or quartz, filling the ramifying worm-holes. Some frag- 
ments are so completely riddled that only a thin partition of wood 
remains ; these partitions retain the grain of the wood, and explain the 
ambiguous character of the specimens. Masses partly carbonized and 
partly silicified, and in intermediate stages, are not uncommon, both in 
Oregon and in California on the Lower Sacramento. 
Thin seams of coal occur in the shale near Astoria; and in the 
Cowlitz, larger deposits of lignite have been opened. ‘The coal of the 
Cowlitz is poor, containing considerable pyrites, and, moreover, it 
is not abundant. It burns with much smoke, caking completely. 
An analysis, by Prof. B. Silliman, Jr., obtained for the composition 
of this coal— 
Carbon, - : - - : 45°56 
Volatile ingredients, - - - - 52:08 
Ashes, - - - : - 2°36 
Impressions of leaves were occasionally observed, as in the sand- 
