NOTES ON THE GEOLOGY AND NATURAL HISTORY OE THE 

 PENINSULA OE LOWER CALIEORNIA. 



By George P. Merrill, 

 Curator, Department of Geology, U. S. National Museum. 



During tlie summer of 1892 tlie writer had occasion to pay a brief 

 visit to the peninsula of Lower Cahfornia, going by boat from San Diego 

 to Sau Quentin, and thence by wagon and pack train to EI Rosario and 

 across to within a few miles of the Gulf Coast, the route lying approxi- 

 mately along the line of the thirtieth parallel. The trip was hurriedly 

 made with the scanty equipments furnished by a prospector's outfit, 

 and opi^ortunities for detailed work were quite lacking. The resultant 

 geological observations have already found their way into print, but a 

 brief abstract from the original publication' may well be given here. 

 The excuse for the present paper lies in the fact that the region, aside 

 from being comparatively unknown and difficult of access, presents 

 many features of interest from the standpoint of both naturalist and 

 archaeologist. 



Fortunately the writer carried with him a folding kodak, and though 

 the good work done by the instrument was in some degree undone by the 

 carelessness or ignorance of a professional photographer in San Diego, 

 enough remains to give, with the aid of a little touching up, the views 

 here shown. In the pages following the remarks on the physiography 

 and geology of the region are (]uoted from the paper above mentioned. 

 The itinerary is compiled from memoranda made at the time. 



(1) PHYSIOGRAPHY. 



"The peninsula of Baja California is a narrow strip of broken moun- 

 tainous laud extending roughly from 22° 50' to 32° 30' north latitude, 

 about 775 miles long and from 35 to 70 miles in width, with a general 

 northwest and sontheast trend parallel to the larger orographic features 

 of the Pacific Slope. Its coast outline, characterized as it is at many 



1 Geological Sketch of Lower California, by S. F. Emmons and G. P. Merrill. Bull. 

 GeoL Soc. of America, V, 1894, pp. 489-514. 



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