PHYSIOGRAPHIC GEOGRAPHY 



1913). Fragments of older and much eroded ter- 

 races are found up to two thousand feet above the 

 sea at other places. The excellent preservation of 

 the major terraces near Santa Cruz is due to a shale 

 formation which, though easily eroded by wave 

 action, is yet quite resistant to ordinary weathering. 

 Series of marine terraces may be seen also at San 

 Pedro Hill, Los Angeles, and at Soledad Hill near 

 San Diego. 



Another peculiarity of the Coast Ranges affects 

 largely the life of the people. The successive 

 mountain ridges from the Pacific to the interior 

 valleys are roughly parallel to the coast line and to 

 each other, but frequently they coalesce. Transverse 

 valleys are very rare. Lines of travel are up and 

 down the valleys rather than over the intervening 

 ridges. Few main wagon roads run from east to 

 west and they have heavy grades. Between Los An- 

 geles and Puget Sound only two passes through the 

 Coast Ranges from the ocean to the interior low- 

 lands are so available for traffic that they have be- 

 come great trade routes the Columbia Kiver and 

 the drowned valley of the lower Sacramento River 

 forming the Golden Gate and San Francisco Bay. 

 Through railroad communication from north to 

 south on the Pacific Slope is as yet confined to the 

 Pacific valleys. Not only is there no extensive 

 coastal plain on the Pacific Coast of the United 

 States, but it is literally true that for many miles 

 at a stretch, and for possibly hundreds of miles in 

 the aggregate, there is no flat land at the coast of 

 sufficient width for a right of way. 



The modern geographer is trying to describe the 

 regions of the world in their various physical as- 



Eects as they affect the surface of the earth as the 

 qme of man. It is to be hoped that the reader 

 will find in the rather impressionistic picture of the 

 physiographic aspect of the Pacific Coast region, 

 here sketched, a framework into which will fit the 

 more detailed information he may gather in plan- 

 ning and in making a visit to this coast. 



REFERENCES 



DILLER, J. S. 



1895. Lassen Peak folio, California. U. S. G. S., Geologic 



Atlas of the U. S., no. 15, 3 pp., 2 pis., 3 maps. 

 1902. Topographic development of the Klamath Mountains. 



U. S. G. S., Bull. no. 196, 69 pp., 13 pis. 

 GILBERT, G. K. 



1890. Lake Bonneville. U. S. G. S., Monograph I; 438 pp., 



51 pis., 1 map. 

 HOLWAY, R. S. 



1915. Volcanic activity of Lassen Peak, California. Pop. 

 Sci. Mon., vol. 86, pp. 290-305. 



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