2 



HISTORICAL REVIEW. 

 George H. Ashley who visited the locality of the San Fernando 



^Ashley, G.H., The Neocene Stratigraphy of the Santa Cruz Mts. Proc. 

 Cal. Acad. of Sci . , Ser. 2, vol. 5, p. 337, l895 



*"* * -*-*- .4 *-* .* ^ *9-*-^-*-^.^.-*^^ * -^MB-*-***-*-**'^'**^-**^**^^*^* *--^* **- 



Pass in 1&94, says of this region: "At the San Fernando tunnel in 

 Los Angeles county the "beds that have been considered as Miocene of 

 the Monterey Series are overlaid conformably by a aeries of calcareous 

 sandstones and conglomerates which are quite fossiliferous. " He 

 made a collection of twenty three determined species, of which four- 

 teen, or sixty per cent . are living. He considered the formation 



as of the same age as the Lower Purissima. *.'* 



2 

 In 1900 Ellsmere Canyon was visited by W. L. Watts, who called 



2 Watts, W. L., Bull. Cal. State Min. Bureau, 1900, no. 19, p. 56. 

 the oil yielding sandstones the lower portion of the Middle Niocene. 

 He also found a point where the sandstones of the Middle Niocene 

 were resting unconformably on "hard sandstones resembling the Neocene 

 sandstones of the Sespe district." This particular locality was not 

 found by the present writer. 



During the years 1901-2 the region of the Santa Clara valley was 



5 

 investigated by G. H. Bldridge, who mapped the lower sandstone 



Slldridge, G. H., U. S. G. S. Bull. no. 309, p. l?i 96-8. 

 beds of Ellsrnere Canyon as Vaqueros, and in the text speaks of their 

 having a typical fauna of the Vaqueros. His age determination was, 

 however, more probably based on the lithologic similarity to the 

 beds in the eastern end of the Santa Susana Range, which he called 

 Vaqueros. He speaks of a structural unconformity, with difference 

 of dip and strike between the Fernando gravels and the underlying 



