Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 9.djvu/38

30 smaller fragments coated with sand, and he showed me others previously collected. Among the latter were several short, cylindrical, hollow pieces like candles from which the wick has disappeared. A few larger pieces weighing from fifty to seventy-five pounds were found some years ago by Mr. Edwards, and also by Mr. Colwell. They bore marks apparently of trade. As the large pieces had all been disposed of I was unfortunately unable to study these marks. The beeswax has been found some miles up the Nehalem river, but always, so far as I could learn, close to the high tide limit. From the Nehalem beach it has been spread along the coast southward by the strong seabreezes of summer, and northward by the storms of winter.

"There are two coal fields on the Nehalem, one in Columbia county, and the other in Clatsop near the mouth of the Nehalem, but nothing whatever occurs in either field which resembles the wax, and it is evident from the location of the body of the wax that it was not derived from the adjacent land, but was transported in a body by the sea and dumped not far from its present position.

"Its mode of occurrence and the marks upon it clearly indicate that the material is not a natural product of Oregon, but they do not prove that it is wax and not ozokerite brought from elsewhere. The two substances, although very similar in their general composition, are readily distinguishable by chemical tests. Mr. H. N. Stokes, one of the chemists of the Geological Survey, to whom it was referred for examination, says: *The substance in question is sharply distinguished from ozokerite and other paraffins by its easy decomposition by warm, strong sulphuric acid, and by being saponified by boiling with alcoholic potash, giving soaps which dissolve in hot water, and from which acids throw down insoluble fatty acids. In view of this behavior the material is evidently wax and not ozokerite.

"Its melting point determined by Mr. Stokes is 64 degrees, centigrade, which coresponds to that of beeswax and distinguishes it from wax of other kinds known to trade."

A summary of the evidence presented by Dr. Diller shows conclusively that the wax deposit is confined, so far as is known, to a single locality, the Nehalem spit, and that fragments found up the Nehalem, or scattered along the coast, might easily be accounted for as incidental drift;