Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 9.djvu/52

40 importer and dealer in waxes, however, pronounced them marks of trade, such as he had often seen upon waxes

coming in from outside countries. After all, the trade-mark explanation is not unsatisfactory. The symbols can be said to have their counterparts in the brands devised for branding stock upon Western cattle ranches, and may be even less obscure in meaning than the year-mark upon a piece of Rookwood pottery is to the uninitiated.

Occasionally a piece of "sandstone" is found upon the beach impregnated with Nehalem wax. This, stone consists of beach sand, in the main, cemented together with the