Paijt I. General Discussion. 



Chapter l. 



TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY OF SAN PEDRO 



1 . Topography. 



The most prominent topograpliic feature about San Pedro is San Pedro Hill, 

 an abruptly projecting headland of the coast, rising to a height of 1,482 feet. Along 

 its southern base is a sea cliff varying in height from one hundred to three hundred 

 feet, while to the east the cliff rarely exceeds fifty feet in height. The hill is ter- 

 raced to within two hundred and forty feet of its summit, and the observations here 

 recorded began on the lowest, or fifty-foot terrace, at the eastern limit of the hill. 

 (See map, Plate XXIII.) 



This terrace extends from a point about one-half mile east of the Point Fer- 

 min lighthouse to a bluff about a half mile north of the business center of the town of 

 San Pedro. The sea cliff bounding this terrace runs due north for nearly a mile and 

 a half from Point Fermin, then bends abruptly at old San Pedro, popularly known as 

 " Crawfish George's," and runs northeastward for half a mile to Timra's Point. From 

 this point the bluff runs due north for over a mile, broken only by a little valley in 

 which the business portion of San Pedro is located. At the north end of this bluff 

 the escarpment bends sharply toward the northwest, and is broken along the north- 

 ern front by several valleys that run down from San Pedro Hill. 



Half a mile southeast of Timm's Point is Deadraan Island, a small fragment 

 of the San Pedro terrace, which has withstood the eroding agents that have cut it 

 off from the mainland, but which is now being worn away rapidly by the waves. It 

 is a triangular bit of land about fifty feet high, with an area on top of about three 

 hundred square yards. Deadraan Island is joined by a breakwater to Rattlesnake 

 Island, or Terminal Island, as it is now called, a narrow barrier beach, which begins 

 at a point directly opposite San Pedro and runs to Old River — the former mouth of 

 the Los Angeles River — about four miles distant. 



About a mile east from Old River a ten-foot bank forms the eastern limit of 

 the marsh lands and the western edge of a plain that rises toward the east for about 

 three and a quarter miles, where it is terminated by a bluff. The bluff, which forms 

 the coast-line of this plain, gradually rises in height from ten feet at its western ex- 

 tremity to over fifty feet at about its middle. The eastern half is of a nearly uniform 

 height of fifty feet. 



The town of Long Beach is situated on the ^ilain that slopes gradually back 



[11] 



