Chapter II. 



THE UPPER PLIOCENE AND PLEISTOCENE FORMATION OF 

 OTHER LOCALITIES OF THE PACIFIC COAST. 



Ix discussing the occurrence of the Pleistocene deposits at other points along 

 the Pacific Coast it will be necessary, in most instances, to quote the observations of 

 others, as the writer has visited only a few of these localities. 



The writer examined a raised beach at Blakeley Point, opposite Seattle, Wash- 

 ington, during the summer of 1900. It consists of sandy deposits lying horizontal 

 upon the upturned and eroded edges of the Astoria Miocene strata. This beach and 

 one or two others in the same vicinity are about ten or twelve feet above the level of 

 Puget Sound, showing a total thiclcness of about ten feet; they are of late Pleistocene 

 ao-e, undoubtedly later than the last ice age of that country. The following species 

 of marine mollusks in a rather poor state of preservation were obtained from the Point 

 Blakeley raised beach: 



Macoma inquinata Purjiura crispata Saxidomus aratus Tapes atamhiea 



Several deposits of a similar nature have been reported by J. P. Kimball' in 

 the same vicinity. Dr. Kimball is of the opinion that there has been a recent eleva- 

 tion of the shores of the Sound of at least twenty-five feet. This uplift has taken place 

 since the glacial drift was deposited in that region. Dall- reports a Pleistocene 

 deposit, overlying beds of Pliocene age, from thirty to forty feet above the sea, near 

 Bruccport, AVashington. 



Mr. H. W. Turner of the United States Geological Survey collected several 

 specimens of sandstone containing the borings and shells oi Pholadidea penita Conrad, 

 from an elevation of fifty feet above tide water, at Fort Ross, Sonoma County, Califor- 

 nia. Pholadidea penita not occurring previously to the Pleistocene, this evidence 

 shows that there has been a post-Pleistocene uplift of at least fifty feet at Fort Ross. 



On the flanks of several of the little valleys draining into the Bay of San Fran- 

 cisco are deposits known to be of post-Pliocene age. Whitney describes some of 

 these deposits, and makes correlations which are important, if correct. He says: ^ 



" A post-Tertiary deposit made up of beds of gravel, sand, clay, and oyster 



' PhysloKraphlc Qeology of the Pllget Sound Basin By J. P. Kimball. Am. OooI.,Vol. XIX, 1897, p. 231. 

 2 Correlation Papers. Neocene. By W. H. Dall and G. D. Harris. Bull. U. 8. Qeol. Sur. No. 84, p. 'J28, 1892. 

 ■< Oeologlcal Survey of California. By J. D. Wiiitney, State Oeologist. Geology, Vol. I, p. 102, 1866. 



( 48 ) 



