AMERICAN GEOLOGY DECADE OF 1850-1859. 



437 



He had no hesitation in sa} ing that no coal would be found in any 

 part of the Coast Range south of the thirty-fifth parallel of north 

 latitude, though the presence of a supposed Carboniferous limestone 

 in Shasta County led him to express a hope that the desired material 

 might yet be found within the limits of the State/ 1 ! In his report for 

 L855 the predominating fossiliferous rocks of San Luis Obispo and 

 Santa Barbara counties were considered to be of Miocene age. The 

 San Bernardino Mountains were described as made up for the most 

 part of primitive rocks, granite forming by far the larger part of 

 their highest ridges and peaks. 



In this connection it is well to note that, at the request of A. D. 

 Bache, of the Coast Survey, W. P. Blake prepared in 1855 a brief 

 paper on the physical geology and geography of the coast of Cali- 

 fornia from Bodega Bay to San Diego. Blake regarded the sedi- 

 mentary rocks of Punta de los Reyes as probably of Miocene age, the 

 sandstone at the entrance of San Francisco Bay as Tertiary, and the 

 metamorphic rock of the peninsula as an altered sandstone. The ser- 

 pentine of Lime Point was shown to be eruptive, as was also the 

 granite of C} T press Point and the Bay of San Carlos, and younger 

 than the conglomerate. 



This same year (1853) there was organized a geological survey of Mis- 

 souri with G. C. Swallow at its head, and Dr. A. Litton, F. B. Meek, 

 Maj. F. Hawn, and Dr. B. F. Shumard as assistants. Five reports 

 were published. The first, bearing the date Novem- 



Swallow's Geological _ L . „ . r _, . 



survey of Missouri, ber 10. 18o3, consisted of but tour pages. Ihe second, 



dated 1854, comprised over 400 pages, including the 



reports of the assistants above mentioned. None of the sections nor 



maps given were colored, nor w T ere any new principles or striking 



" These hopes were partially realized, lignite coal, but of Cretaceous age, having 

 been found and to some extent worked in Alameda, Amador, Contra Costa, Fresno, 

 Kern, Monterey, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties. 



