50 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



In the region surrounding Carmelo Bay^ are numerous terraces strewn with 

 boulders and pebbles, more or less cemented together, and in several cases with the 

 adjoining rock surfaces showing borings which resemble those of Pholadidea penita. 

 No fossils have been found in these deposits, but Lawson believes them to be of 

 Pleistocene origin. He also believes that there was an interruption in the Pleistocene 

 sedimentation, during which time orogenic movements took place. His conclusions 

 are based on the finding of an unconformity between two of the terrace formations in 

 a section north of Abalone Point. 



Fairbanks^ tells of a large area of Pleistocene sediments lying west of Corrali- 

 tos Creek and north of the summit of the ridge. The beds are horizontal and consist 

 of indistinctly stratified and slightly consolidated sand. This sand formation reaches 

 a maximum thickness of about three hundred feet. Fragments of shells are found 

 over the surface of the deposits up to an elevation of nine hundred feet. The only 

 shells positively identified from the surface of the beds are: 



Chlorostoma hrunneum Haliotis (!) Lunalia lnwisii Myiilus californicus Purpura canaliculata 



This fauna is similar to that of the Indian kitchen-middens found at so many 

 places along the coast, and it seems probable that the shells are from deposits of this 

 kind. Their occurrence on the surface would add weight to this theory. Another 

 Pleistocene area in this Point Sal district is at the head of the valley north of the 

 dairy, and consists of fragments of bituminous shale, and a deposit of calcium carbon- 

 ate containing casts of Crepidula rugosa and a species of Purpura. Fairbanks says 

 these beds are similar to those of Point Loma, near San Diego, " even to the presence 

 on the surface of small concretionary nodules of sand cemented by iron oxide." ^ 



From Mallagh Landing, two miles southeast of Port Harford, to Pismo, and 

 from Surf to Santa Barbara the sea-clififs are capped by deposits of sand and gravel 

 which are probably of Pleistocene age. No fossils were found in any of the localities 

 visited; but in several places, noticeably northwest of Pismo, pholas-bored pebbles 

 were found at the contact between the Pleistocene sands and the underlying eroded 

 Miocene shale, thus showing the marine origin of the Pleistocene deposits. 



Santa Barbara and Vicinity. 



The Packard's Hill deposits are the most important of the fossiliferous 

 beds in the immediate vicinity of Santa Barbara. Packard's Hill is a ridge 

 about three hundred feet in height, which begins a short distance northwest of 

 the western end of the beach boulevard, and extends for nearly a mile due north. 

 Its eastern slope is almost precipitous, and outcrops of the fossil-bearing strata are 

 found over the whole slope. The best outcrops, and the one from which all the fossils 

 were obtained by the writer, are about two-thirds of the way up the hill. The hill 

 consists of layers of fine, soft, light yellow sand and marl, which is hardened in places 



' The Geology of Carmelo Bay. By A. 0. Lawson. Bull. Dept. Geol., Univ. Cal., Vol. I., p. 62, el seq. 



2 The Geology of Point Sal By H. W. Faiibanks. Bull. Dept. Geol., UniT. Cal., Vol. II., 1806, p. 6-8. 



3 Of. cit., p. 8. 



