THE ISLANDS 

 1. SAN MIGUEL 

 3. SANTA ROSA 



3. SANTA CRUZ 



4. ANACAPA ISUkNDS 



5. SANTA BARBARA 



6. SANTA CATALINA 



7. SAN CLEMENTE 



The term •vicditerrajiean" (meaning 'middle of the world"}. 

 applied by the Romans to the sea which lay in the middle of the 

 world as they knew it. has today acquired a much wider 

 connotation. It is applied to a type of climate and vegetation 

 found all over the world on the edges of hot desert belts — in 

 Mesopotamia and Persia. China, southwestern South America, the 

 tip of South Africa, and Australia, as well as in Florida and the 

 southern and Baja California areas. (VJe use here the Spanish 

 word baja, meaning "low" or "lower," to distinguish the 

 peninsula of that name from the most southerly portion of the 

 state of California.) Mediterranea lie in the scrub belts and are 

 distinguishable by their forests of small-leafed evergreen trees-- 

 both pines and other conifers, small oaks, and such trees as 



olives, madrones. and so forth. Grasses are rare, and the ground 

 surface is usually rather hare and sandy or rocky. Incipient 

 deserts may occur in them. Their soils are rich though desiccated, 

 and they are notable areas for growing fruits and herbs. 



The present province is quite distinct. It lies athwart the 

 North Scrub but extends into the true deserts. It consists basically 

 of two blocks of moderate mountains, both composed of 

 several ranges. Between these are long, narrow, meandering 

 valleys and. in places, a very narrow coastal strip or plain. 

 These valleys were originally covered with arid scrublands or 

 deserts, but today most of them — such as the San Bernardino 

 valley — are verdant as a result of irrigation or sprinkling, and 

 are highly productive. Artificial watering has also crept up the 

 mountain slopes in many areas, while all manner of foreign 

 trees, shrubs, and herbs have been introduced and spread widely. 

 Prairies start at a low altitude due to the nearness of that belt 

 to the north, and may run up above the "forest" at sea level, 

 for the latter is what is called chaparral — actually, just a giant 

 growth of the bushes of the Scrub Belt. Above the prairies come 

 narrow montane parklands. and then the usual succession of 

 temperate broad-leafed, mixed, and coniferous forest zones. No 

 true alpine fades exists in this province. 



The boundary of this province is the northern face of the 

 Southern Californian mountains from San Luis Obispo to the 

 region of Eagle Mountain. From that point it turns due south, 

 west of the Chocolate Mountains, the Salton Sea. and the 

 Imperial Valley, and then continues down the peninsula of Baja 

 California to the southern end of the Santa Catalina Mountains. 

 The northern mountain block includes the San Rafael, 

 Santa Ynez. Pinos. Topatopa. Santa Susana. San Gabriel, and 

 San Bernardino Mountains; the southern block, the Santa Anas 

 just south of the Los Angeles valley, the San Jacinto, Santa Rosa, 

 and Laguna ranges, and the Sierra Juarez, the Santa Catalinas, 

 and the great upland mesa between them in Baja California. 

 Off the coast are several strings of islands of considerable 

 intrinsic interest. 



carcasses were brought to these particular places by the men who 

 made the fires and charred some of their bones there. These 

 hearths and the strata in which they are found represent a 

 considerable spread in time, during which these little ele- 

 phantines continued to be obtained in fair quantities; so that 

 some have wondered how they managed to avoid extinction, 

 especially if they were hunted by seemingly most competent 

 groups of humans. Since there is much volcanicity along the 

 whole Pacific coast, and earthquakes and long-term earth move- 

 ments are common, it has even been suggested that these islands 

 are only the remnants of a much larger land mass or series of 

 much bigger islands that existed off this coast for a long time 

 but was never again connected with the mainland after it was 

 separated from it. Many specimens of material dug from these 

 sites have now been submitted to radiocarbon dating, and some, 

 which were associated with men's work, turn out to be more 

 than 14,000 years old, while other of the material has been 

 otherwise estimated to go back as much as 32.000 years. There 

 is evidence that men and the pigmy mammoths were both there 

 at a very early time, and if they were hunting at the latter date 

 this is nearly if not the earliest date so far established for the 

 presence of Man on this continent — though some much earlier 

 ones have been claimed, notably from the San Diego area. The 



date .32,000 B.P. (that is, before the present) would mean that 

 these hunters were active on these islands at the beginning of 

 the last major ice advance, yet had quite a well-developed cul- 

 ture. If the dates given for the San Diego and certain other finds 

 are authenticated, it would put Man's presence on this continent 

 back into the interglacial stage before the last-but-one ice 

 advance, and yet he would even then appear to have been a 

 competent toolmaker. It would also make him almost an indig- 

 enous part of the fauna. We would then very much like to 

 know what inanner of man he might have been, and whether 

 he evolved here from some even more primitive race or himself 

 crossed over from eastern Asia carrying prototypes of his tools 

 with him via the Bering Strait. 



THE CREEPING HILLS OF PALOS VERDES 



We mentioned that earth movements are a feature of the coastal 

 regions of this province. Considerable stretches are subsiding at 

 a rate that is causing real concern, especially around San Diego. 

 But just south of Los Angeles there is something much more 

 startling to be seen. The coastal plain south of what is now 

 Redondo Beach moves inland behind a headland of high grassy 



