CHAPTER XIV. 



ESTRELLA RIVER, PANZA, AND CARRIZO. 



SoPBCE AND CODUSE OF THE SAN JOAN RIVER. — CarRIZO CREEK. — PaNZA VALLEY. — FLATTENING OUT OF THE SAN JOSE GRANITE TO THE 

 WEST, AND ELEVATION Or PANZA AND CARRIZO SANDSTONES. — StRITCTCRE OF PANZA HILLS. — PROXIMITY TO T0LARB VALLEY. — ^EXTENSION 

 OF THE GAVILAN RANGE SEPARATING THEM. — EFFECT OF PROXIMITY OF THE SAN JOSE AND GAVILAN. — EsTERO PLAIN FORMED BY 

 THEIR DIVERGENCE, — RESEMBLANCE OF ESTERO PLAIN TO TULARE VALLEY. — StREAMJ WHICH SUPPLY THE PLAIN. — LiTTLE KNOWN OF 

 ITS OlOLOGY. — The eastern slope of the SAN joss assists in forming PANZA and CARRIZO, AND HAS THE SAME 8TRATIGRAPHICAL 



BELATioNS. — Inferior rock of panza similar to the brown sandstones of santa Barbara. — Gypseous sandstones. — Ostrea 



AND PECTEN LAYERS. — UpPER BEDS ARENACEOUS, WITH ARCA. — SlOPE OP THE STRATA. — ToTAL THICKNESS. — TERRACES ALONG THE 

 VALLEY..— FOSSILIPEROUS STRATA BENEATH.. — COMPARISON OF THE STRATA AT PaNZA WITH THOSE OF SANTA MARGARITA AND SANTA 



BARBARA. — Tabular list of the strata. — Enumeration of the fauna op that period. 



The San Jose mountains separate the Salinas and Santa Maria valleys from those lying fur- 

 ther east. When this range is crossed east of Santa Margarita, or of Cuyama, a valley country 

 is entered whose elevation is considerably above that of those on the west ; but the nature of 

 the valleys north and south are very different in character. At the point where the San Jose 

 chain crosses the Salinas to pass south, the San Juan or Estrella river enters the Salinas. This, 

 which is hardly a tributary, since it is much longer than the upper Salinas, takes its rise forty 

 miles further southeast in a series of high valleys on the eastern base of the San Jose moun- 

 tains. The stream, there small, receives the name of Carrizo creek, where its elevation is more 

 than 1,600 feet above the sea ; as it passes south, it leaves the open rolling sandstone land and 

 enters a narrow valley wonderfully disturbed since its deposition, and denuded during its eleva- 

 tion. This receives the name of Panza valley from the ranch of that name. South of this it 

 receives the name Estrella, and from thence southwards the river retains its place at the base 

 of the range until it reaches the Salinas valley and river. 



The region of Carrizo was but little examined ; but few fossils were found in the upper sand- 

 stones ; in an upper layer of these, before reaching the valley of Panza, two small shells were 

 picked out of the soft sand rock. These were pecten deserti (Conrad) and anomia subcostata, the 

 latter doubtful. The former is a shell found on the western limit of the Colorado desert ; it is 

 here found 250 miles northwest, and separated by two valleys and three mountain ridges. The 

 stratum does not correspond lithologically with that of the desert in which it is found. 



The granitic axis of the San Jose range spreads out westward underneath the strata eleva- 

 ting the whole plain, and carrying the sandstones to a level several hundred feet above the 

 western valleys. Nor does it merely elevate ; it is also itself protruded in several places, not 

 in a chain, but separately, producing the local disturbances and flexions of strata alluded to. 

 Panza hills, lesser and greater, are two mountains which display these phenomena well, being 

 masses of granitic rock at their southeast end, which have tilted up the strata, and causes them 

 to dip toward the San Jose, from which they are not distant furtlier than six miles in an air- 

 line eastward. Further south the country still rises with rolling hills of sandstone, presenting 

 tteir worn edges to the west and south. The granite appears more constantly as a surface 

 rock^ and alon^ the head of Carrizo creek gneiss is traced for several miles accompanying the 



