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With those relics of the vertebrate animals now in our possession, from the 

 counties of San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles, and what has 

 been brought to light in the Counties of Tuolumne, Placer and Siskiyou, it 

 appears evident that not less than eight species of these gigantic animals for 

 merly existed upon these shores. The relative situation of these remains in dif 

 ferent parts of the State precludes the idea that they could have existed during 

 the same identical period, therefore, it will probably be necessary to construct a 

 different arrangement than that at present acknowledged, for the date at which 

 allied genera and species in other parts of the world existed, compared to those 

 of California. 



We are warranted in this assumption from the appearance and character of 

 the marine fossils adjacent to the district from which many of these bones have 

 been exhumed, and as in the case of those remains from the northern districts 

 of the State, their association with relics of the works of art would certainly 

 appear to bring them down to a much later period than that usually assigned; 

 but of this subject we shall treat again at a future day, when farther, but per 

 haps not more decisive evidence is in our possession. 



In the mountainous districts of the Counties of San Luis Obispo and Santa 

 Barbara, the predominating fossiliferous rocks are miocenes holding an age con 

 temporaneous with the Monte Diablo groups. Among the higher hills of these 

 Counties, the Miocene rocks are in many instances largely developed; this will 

 be found to be the case in an eminent degree in the La Questa San Marcas, a pass 

 in the mountains, and on one of the trails from the town of Santa Barbara 

 into the Valley of San Inez. 



The cafion of this hill cuts through heavy beds of sandstone, which is loaded 

 with fossils of marine origin, among which Pectinea, Cardia and Ostrea are in 

 greatest abundance, while it is prolific in univalves and spiral shells, with other 

 additional bivalves. Immediately east of the Mission of Santa Barbara among 

 the lower hills, there is an extensive bed of Ostrea, the cementing medium be 

 ing made up of lime with an admixture of a small quantity of sand. 



In passing through the Yalley of San Inez and entering the coast mountains 

 in the County of Luis Obispo, the same fossiliferous rocks occur for forty miles, 

 and in a large valley lying in the centre of these mountains a portion of the rib 

 of a large whale was found by Col. Norris, of the U. S Land Survey, at an al 

 titude of nearly twenty-five hundred feet above the level of the sea, and about 

 thirty-six miles into the interior. It is not uncommon to find the remains of 

 these large cetaceans among the mountains forming the coast, and some frag 

 ments of similar bones have also been brought from the borders of the Tulare 

 Yalley. From careful examinations of those bones which have been brought 

 into situations where they have been made the subject of careful investigation, 

 it is believed 'that the larger proportion of all that have yet been found, are re 

 ferable to present existing genera and species, though from fragments alone, it 

 would be difficult to individualize at the present time. 



The fossiliferous sandstones of the mountains possess many of the lithological 

 characteristics which are found among the rocks of the same age in the more 

 northern parts of the State, ' nd belonging to the same chain, and when differ 

 ing from this rule, the cause will be found entirely local, and of limited extent. 

 Any diversity in species that may be found imbedded in these rocks, will be 

 more attributable to local climatal influences rather than to any difference in rela 

 tive age which the rocks of the southern mountains may hold to those of the 

 northern districts. 



In the County of San Luis Obispo, at the distance of about fifteen miles from 

 the coast, and from thence into the interior, both east and south, are to be found 

 beds containing an uncommonly large Grypha3 at times weighing twenty 



