148 CHANNEL ISLANDS OF CALIFORNIA 



hill would become an island; and if the coast should 

 be elevated one hundred and seventy-five feet — which 

 has been done many times — there would be added to 

 this group Cortez, Tanner, and Osborne Banks as 

 islands. 



San Clemente, geologically speaking, is miUions of 

 years old, and appeared, or was elevated, near the 

 close of the Post Miocene erosion. San Nicolas doubt- 

 less came up at the same time, — the result of some 

 disturbance of the coast, faulting and folding all 

 through this region, during which the older islands of 

 Santa Catalina were doubtless elevated still higher. 

 In a word, this time doubtless saw the birth of San 

 Clemente, and as Dana states that the Cenozoic time 

 dates back three million years, that may be considered 

 the age of this fine fishing-ground, which has had many 

 sinkings and risings since, producing the strange and 

 wonderful old beach terraces on the southern end, and 

 the great mass of columns shot out at the east end 

 near Cape Pinchot. 



Following the birth of San Clemente came the 

 Pliocene depression, when the sea stood for ages fif- 

 teen hundred feet lower than at present, according to 

 Smith, — a fact shown by the highest terraces of the 

 wonderful terrace series seen near Chinetti's. At this 

 time the upper surface of San Clemente, which I rode 

 over on horseback in 1908, was just above the surface. 

 As to the reason for the formation of San Clemente, 

 how it happened to become an island, Dr. Smith 

 states that doubtless all the islands were the result 

 of "crusted deformation," San Clemente being a 

 "faulted block." Dr. Lawson describes San Clemente 

 as a "tilted, orographic block" — hard names for an 



