210 



IRRIGATION INTESTIGATIONS IN CALIFORNIA. 



worn, were found, but these were unusual. The feature of the topography between 

 these points on both sides of the valley is the number of allu\'ial cones or fans, already 

 uaentioned, which spread out from the mouths of the canyons, which cones are them- 

 selves cut by smaller gulches. A rudely stratified earthj' conglomerate, the pebbles 

 of which are angular fragments of granite, schist, and gneiss, varying in size from 

 sand grains to fragments the size of one's head, is usually found capping these fans. 

 In this section of the valley also the smaller stream beds, as they approach the river, 

 show few signs of recent erosion, where observed, as though the water had sunk 

 away into the ground. 



Beginning at Riverbank, on the northeastern side, and at a point about 1 mile 

 south of the Salvation Army Colon}-, on the southwestern side of the valley, are to be 

 found the iirst true gravels, the Pliocene beds ah'eady mentioned, consisting of well- 

 rounded pebbles. At Riverbank the}' occur in stratified beds in railroad cuts, and at 

 both places thej- underlie the granite soil above mentioned. Presumably these" 

 gravels extend under the valley from Soledad to Salinas at least, for apparently the 



same beds are exposed in a cut on 

 S.W. . N.E. the southwest side of the Salinas 



River opposite the sugar factory. 

 From Riverbank to Metz the rocks 

 in place are granite and other ig- 

 neous rocks, shale, and crystalline 

 limestone. 



Beginning at the southwest cor- 

 ner of township 18 S., R. 8 E., 

 and extending over the greffter 

 part of Topo Rancho and the Bit- 

 terwater countiy and southeast 

 into San Luis Obispo Countj'^, is 

 the Pliocene terrace. The north- 

 eastern edge of this terrace fol- 

 lows, for the most part, a series of 

 anticlinal valleys extending in a northwest-southeast direction through the Peach 

 Tree, Slacks Canyon, and Cholame country. 



At Barretts Oil Well, in the southwest quarter of sec. 31, T. 22 S., R. 14 E., a 

 lai'ge quantity of water was encountered in a bed of granitic sand at a depth of about 

 300 feet below the surface. (Fig. 7.) 



In the bed of angular granitic sand more water flowed into the well than could 

 be pumped out. Elevation at top of well is 1,870 feet above Kings City. Dip of 

 shale is 54 degrees southwest. This suggests the possibilitj' of artesian water being 

 found in the Salinas Valley if wells were sunk to a suflicient depth. There are several 

 folds between this well and the valley, however. 



The beds forming the terrace are folded on each side of the Cholame Valley 

 about Imusdale, but from about sec. 27, T. 23 S., R. 13 E., they dip at an angle 

 of about 3 degrees toward the Salinas River. The distinguishing features of this 

 terrace formation are the rather flat-topped hills, nearly all of which are in the same 

 general plane, the large quantity of shale pebbles in the gravel beds, and the 

 capping of rather loose sandstone containing enough lime to whiten it. These over- 



FiG. 7. — Sand and shale beds paased through by Barrett's oil well 

 in southwest quarter section 31, T. 22 S., R. 14 E. 



