ACR/FEROrS GRAVELS— INDEPENDENCE HILL FLORA 903 



shore line moved far eastward. Subsidence has certainly not 

 kept cc|ual pace with deposition in the Great Valley. 



CORRELATION WITH THE BEDS OF THE COAST RANGES. 



In a recent bulletin of the Geological Department of the 

 University of California, Professor Lawson has described the 

 Miocene, Pliocene, and the Pleistocene from various points along 

 the coast, calling especial attention to the evidence of recent 

 elevation as attested b)^ the numerous beach lines at eleva- 

 tions up to 1200 feet.^ He has further described the Merced 

 series from the San Francisco peninsula and the Wildcat series 

 from the northern coast, identifying both as Pliocene, and 

 deposited during the gradual subsidence of the coast preceding 

 the recent uplift, marked by the beaches. He finds that the 

 Miocene, as represented by the Monterey series is distinct from 

 the Pliocene as represented by the Merced formation, and that 

 the latter is separated from the former by a long period of 

 depr-ession. The Pliocene and the Pleistocene gradually merge 

 into one another, and the somewhat arbitrary line between the 

 two should be drawn at the upper part of the Merced series at a 

 time when the shore line began to recede westward. In short, 



'Bull. Dept. Geol. Univ. of Calif., Vol. I, No. 4, p. 148. Professor Lawson, in 

 demolishing Professor Davidson's view of the beaches along the coast of California 

 as formed by ice action, states that the only geologists who have observed and cor- 

 rectly interpretated them are Dr. Cooper (Geol. Cal., Vol. I, p. 184), in his observa- 

 tions on San Clemente Island, and A. Bowman, in describing the coast in the vicinity 

 of San Francisco (Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci., July i, 1872). This is evidently not quite 

 correct. No geologist could for a moment mistake those beach lines, so plainly are 

 they indicated, and we find, for instance, that W. P. Blake (Pac. R. R. Rept., Vol. V, 

 p. 187) recognized a raised beach 300 feet above the sea at Monterey, and a general 

 elevation of the coast. Dall found evidence of a post-Pliocene uplift of 600 feet in 

 the vicinity of San Diego (Proc. U. S. Nat. Museum, 1878, Vol. I, p. 3). Mr. G. F. 

 Becker recognized a recent elevation of the coast of at least 250 feet (Monograph 

 XIII, U. S. G. S., p. 207) on the Sonoma coast. In 1888, in a paper on the Geology 

 of Baja, California, by W. Lindgren (Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci., 2d sen, Vol. I, Part 2, p. 

 179) the terraces are referred to as follows : "The numerous oscillations of the shore 

 line during post-Pliocene time are equally plain in Lower California, as along the 



coast north of it The ancient shore lines are shown on Punta Banda (60 



miles south of the Mexican line) as often well marked wave-built terraces ; " four 

 beaches were recognized, the highest at an elevation of 600 feeL 



