414  CONTRIBUTIONS    TO    ECONOMIC    GEOLOGY,  1904.         [bull.  260. 
The  whole  country  below  timber  line,  which  in  this  region  is  at 
an  elevation"  of  approximately  5,500  feet,  is  heavily  timbered  with 
hemlock,  cedar,  spruce,  fir,  etc.  Between  the  larger  trees  is  a  dense 
undergrowth  of  devils  club,  salal,  brakes,  ferns,  and  vines,  which 
offers  an  almost  impenetrable  barrier  to  ordinary  progress. 
Clallam  County  is  sparsely  settled,  and  the  few  settlements  in  it 
are  located  in  the  lowlands  flanking  the  mountains,  and  all,  with 
two  or  three  exceptions,  are  situated  on  the  coast.  Except  for  sev- 
eral short  logging  roads  no  steam  transportation  is  carried  on  in  the 
county,  all  of  the  freighting  being  done  either  b}^  pack  animals  and 
wagons  or  by  the  steamers  which  ply  between  Seattle  and  the  ports 
along  the  strait. 
GENERAL  GEOLOGY. 
Owing  to  the  inaccessibility  of  the  inner  country  little  is  known  of 
the  geolog}^  of  Clallam  County  except  of  that  portion  bordering  the 
coast.  Mr.  Gilman,f/  in  referring  to  the  Olympic  country  in  general, 
says:  "The  country  rocks  of  the  mountains  are  syenite,  gneiss, 
quartzite,  protogene,  crystalline  and  chlorite  schists,  slate  (hard 
black  flinty  to  soft  green  talc),  shale,  sandstone,  trap,  and  basalt." 
From  evidence  obtained  by  the  writer  along  the  western  end  of  the 
peninsula  and  by  Mr.  Chester  Washburne,  the  writer's  assistant,  in 
the  Soleduck  Kiver  Canyon,  south  of  Lake  Crescent,  it  appears  prob- 
able that  at  least  the  greater  part  of  the  Olympic  Mountains  lying  in 
Clallam  County  is  composed  of  a  hard  gray  sandstone  of  pre- 
Oligocene  age. 
Eocene. — The  oldest  rocks  of  definitely  known  age  in  the  area  are 
a  series  of  black  basic  basalts  and  greenish  basalt  tuffs  found  in  the 
vicinity  of  Port  Crescent.  The  tuffs  of  this  series  contain  Yeneri- 
cardia  planicosta  Lamarck  and  several  other  characteristic  Eocene 
fossils.  The  formation  occupies  the  Point  Crescent  promontory, 
west  of  Crescent  Bay,  and  a  ridge  300  to  400  feet  in  height  lying 
next  to  the  coast  and  extending  from  Crescent  Bay  eastward  for  3^ 
miles,  to  Freshwater  Bay.  The  Point  Crescent  area  and  a  small 
outcrop  1  mile  west  of  the  latter  are  isolated  from  the  adjacent 
formations  by  faults. 
Pre-OIigocene. — In  addition  to  the  hard  gray  sandstones  of  the 
northern  slopes  of  the  Olympics  there  is  a  complex  series  of  gray 
sandstone,  quartzite,  greenstones,  and  serpentine  outcropping  in  the 
western  end  of  the  county,  about  the  age  of  which  little  is  known 
except  that  it  is  pre-Oligocene  and  probably  either  Eocene  or  Meso- 
zoic  or  both.  The  pre-Oligocene  rocks,  as  a  rule,  are  considerably 
contorted,  and  contain  quartz  and  calcite  vTeins  in  many  places,  some 
of  the  former  carrying  small  amounts  of  gold  and  silver.     Indica- 
°  Nat.  Geog.  Mag.,  vol.  7,  1896,  p.  138. 
