Show SHELLS REVEAL ROCK AGES the little jellylike jelly like animals which the scientist calls swarm so abundantly ab un in the sea that their tiny castoff cast off shells in some places make up a considerable part of the sediments which are laid down on the sea bottom and which in time may become beds of rock in a land area the small size and the compactness of these shells protect them from some of the accidents that befall the remains of larger animals so that in many samples of well bor ings the are the only shells that hake have survived in recognizable form the vicissitudes of drilling in the hands of specialists cia lists trained to identify fossils the min ifera may furnish the only available clue to the age of the rock inclosing them and consequently to the existence of strata or structure favorable or unfavorable to the accumulation of oil gass or water thus the spectacled scientist who may really look like an alert business man becomes the helpful adviser of the practical oil geologist or the well driller the united states geological survey department of the inferior has recently issued a report that may be of great value in the search for underground water oil and gas this report prepared by joseph A cushman and issued as survey bulletin contains descriptions script ions of some species of from the miocene and pliocene formations of the coastal plain of the united states and is abundantly illustrated with figures many times magnified of these minute organisms gani sms A copy of bulletin which is purely technical may be obtained without cast by applying to the director of the united states geological survey washington D C |