UPPERMOST STRATA OF SANTA INEZ. 71 



quarried as a source of rough lime. A section of the strata on the south side is given in figure 

 2, of plate 3. 



Upon the terrace, near Ortegas ranch, an arroyo cuts its way through to reach the shore, 

 disclosing the terrace strata tilted up at a high angle and bent, and the whole swept smooth by 

 denudation. This is illustrated in plate 3, figure 3. The intruding mass is a magnesian and 

 lerruginous clay, with seams of gypsum and traces of sulphur, probably separated by decompo- 

 sition from pyrites. This upheave has occurred beside the foraminiferous bed of the asphaltic 

 group, or the San Luis beds ; this, in its elevation, carried before it the soft, white argillaceous 

 beds of San Luis, (stratum 1,) and bent them completely, forming an arch over the intrusive 

 substance, beside which is a gray, dark sandstone rock here seen dipping under it. 



Near this ranch, upon the shore, the asphaltic strata again shew themselves ; a thickness of 

 about 6 feet is exposed in the edge of the cliff on shore, the beds dipping into and under the sea. 

 The lower layers are dark greenish, with an upper layer two feet thick of yellow sandstone. 

 The layers are fissured, and the cracks filled in with bitumen ; the latter is washed ashore here 

 by the tide in masses from ^ pound to 4 and 6 pounds weight. An examination did not 

 discover any deposit of it at this point of the terrace, but there is no doubt that some miles out 

 at sea a dislocation of the strata allows the mineral to escape and to be washed ashore. At 

 times, as when the wind blows on shore, the whole air is impregnated with the bituminous 

 odor, which is thus disseminated for miles over the low lands. The strata, which at this camp 

 (24, on the terrace) are covered up almost entirely by the tide, a little further east are exposed, 

 and form the low hills which lie immediately west of the town of Santa Barbara ; the shore 

 line here commencing to deviate near to the south, leaving a larger interval between the base of 

 the mountains and the sea. As this distance widens to six miles, the high terrace drops down, 

 and in its place are undulating swells of land, 100 to 150 feet, lying along shore, and cutting 

 off from the sea a low and fertile valley, very little above the level of high tide, and which is 

 in part occasionally overflowed by it. Mr. Hill's ranch is at this point. Before the last eleva- 

 tion of the land which raised it above sea level, this was an arm of the sea stretching up to the 

 base of the mountains. It is now a fertile valley, and, between grantees and squatters, well 

 filled up. 



The asphaltic shales at this point are conformable with the white agillite rock found at the 

 cliff edge, G-aviote pass ; as these beds have been fully noticed elsewhere, (see San Luis valley, 

 and the chapter on bituminous effusions,) their further consideration may be dispensed with. 



The Santa Inez range sends out a terminating ridge a few miles east of the town of Santa 

 Barbara, produced by one of the protrusions of igneous rock, in a southeast direction, throwing 

 the upraised strata in opposite directions, making the dip vary from northwest to southeast 

 within a few hundred yards. In this part of the chain, the volcanic forces cannot be said to be 

 quiescent as yet. On Dr. Robbins' ranch, which lies near this spur, occasionally fire, smoke, 

 and sulphurous vapor has been emitted, from fissures in the rock, in large quantities within a 

 few years past. A similar volcanic vent exists at Rincon. 



This point (Rincon) is interesting as being the termination, along shore, of that link of the 

 range which lies behind Santa Barbara town, and over Questa San Marcus leads. The axial 

 rock is scoriaceous lava, resembling, in some places, furnace clinkers ; in others it is a whitish- 

 gray, hard trachytic rock. It is not more than twenty-five feet wide on shore, running into 

 the sea to form a prominent headland. The stratum seen in contact with it is a soft, reddish 

 sand rock of an ochry tint, then whitish clay rock, then green sand rock with layers of biturrien, 



