i9o6] MINUTES. 179 



high, sharp, rocky pHcations, folds or ridges, with regular or irregular valleys 

 between them; and broken down (i) at the Bay of Monterey in latitude 36° 

 36'; (2) at the Golden Gate in 37° 49'; and (3) at Bodega Bay in 38° 18'. 



Inside of this coast range lies the Great Valley of California, having an 

 average width of 65 miles, 450 miles in length, and bounded on the east by 

 the Sierra Nevada. 



The ocean face of the coast mountains is high, rocky, bold, and grand 

 in certain parts, for example : one of the Twin Peaks of the Santa Lucia 

 range in latitude 36° 03', rises to 5100 feet only three miles from the sea; 

 Mt. Santa Lucia about ten miles east, with deep intervening valley, rises to 

 6100 feet; Loma Prieta (formerly Mount Bache on Coast Survey charts) is 

 in the San Francisco Peninsula range in latitude 37° 07' and reaches 3793 feet 

 above the sea ; Tamalpais Mount in the range on the peninsula north of the 

 Golden Gate in latitude 37° 55', and only four miles from the sea, is 2604 feet 

 high. To the westward of this mountain is the outstretching Point Reyer 

 Head 597 feet high, stretching eight miles beyond the general direction of 

 the coast and connected therewith with low-lying alluvial lands. 



North of Bodega Head (38° 18') the general height of the range is 2200 

 feet, until within twenty miles of Cape Mendocino, it reaches 4265 feet at 

 Krag Peak latitude 40° 09'. 



Beyond Cape Mendocino (40° 27') the range is continued under the sea, 

 as shown by a few deep sea soundings. It is here that ships have experienced 

 the effects of submarine earthquakes. 



The greatest transverse line of rupture in these ranges is the Golden 

 Gate, one mile wide and sixty-three fathoms deep. A less but longer line 

 of lozv rupture is from Bodega Bay to Petaluma Creek that empties into the 

 northwest part of San Pablo Bay. 



Ocean Depths. — Off this bold and rocky coast the profound depths of 

 the Pacific lie close aboard. 



In 1874 Captain George Belknap, U. S. Navy, ran several lines of deep 

 sea soundings broad off certain points of the coast to the depths of 1000 

 and 2000 fathoms, so that we know the depth of 1000 fathoms is found at 

 40 to 60 geog. miles from shore and the deep plateau of 2000 fathoms, 2^ 

 miles, at 46 to 72 geog. miles. The shortest distance is off the Santa Lucia 

 range : the middle off the Gulf of the Farallones, and the longest off Cape 

 Mendocino. At the latter the 1000 geographical miles sounding was gotten at 

 25 miles ; and the 2263 sounding at 85 miles. 



And it should be noted that off the high bold coast just south of Cape 

 Mendocino there are four submarine, or submerged valleys that head directly 

 at the shore under the highest peaks, and at right angles to the coast. (See 

 my paper on Submerged Valleys.) Those are the more general features of 

 the coast line. The coast survey charts exhibit the line of coast, the heights, 

 and the depths. 



The Bay of San Francisco. — This bay lies in one of the valleys of the 

 coast range, and therefore is mainly parallel therewith; and the great trans- 

 verse break through this range helps to form the bay. 



