The haul, made in a few hours, is by far the best of our trip. The next morning we wake to a gale. The waves crash high onto the beach, the trees near the settlement bend in the strong wind and the sky dumps water. We wait for the tide to go out and hope the weather settles by then. John especially is anxious, because it's our last day to collect fossils and search for remains of the ancient shark Pucapampella .
Time spent waiting is wasted time.
Luck is with us, though, and as the tide goes out so does the storm. When we return to the beach all there is to hear, once again, is the sound of rocks breaking. But this day is not as good as the first. Many of the fossils we recover are broken, split when the hard concretions break into pieces. We scrutinize the layers of shale and find more fossils.