walls of schmutz, screens of gold

It was a pretty good weekend at the hot spot. A new system has been developed and even these real tough spots to dig are yielding their bounties at a nice pace. The variety was good and I got a few winners like the 2" chub that I managed to pull out without incident from my shovel. I did break at least 4 smaller ones though, but oddly I managed to get every mako out cleanly. Most of the finds came fast and furious on Sunday morning, then I had a big drought of about 4 hours in which I was pushing real hard due to my earlier success. I was hoping for a 2nd nice chub of the day, but did not manage it or much of anything. That is, until I was absolutely done for the day, sore all over and ready to collapse. But there always is a last screen of the day and in that I pulled out what is likely only the 2nd eocene whale fossil found north of NC in North America. It is a protocetid archaeocete and matches closely with Georgiacetus. The first one I also found came early this summer.