A URIFEROUS GRA VELS— INDEPENDENCE HILL FLORA 905 



Ouercus, Ficus, Juglans, Magnolia, Persea, Laurus, Cinnamomum, 

 Paliurus, Zisyphus, etc. Contemporaneously with this flora the 

 salt water extended eastward as far as Mount Diablo and north- 

 ward probably as far as the Marysville Buttes. 



There are some remains of plants in the Merced series, 

 described by Professor Lawson/ At the very base rests, on 

 Mesozoic volcanic rock, a stratum of partly carbonized forest 

 material from which abundant pine cones were collected ; these 

 were determined by Professor E. L. Green as Pinus i?isignis 

 (Monterey pine) , a species not widespread at the present day, 

 but still growing abundantly dear Monterey ; about the middle 

 of the series little altered trunks of trees occur associated with 

 cones determined as Psaidotsuga taxifolia (Douglas spruce), a 

 species common in California at the present time. It is scarcely 

 permissible to correlate these two floras. In the auriferous 

 gravels there is not one species, according to Professor Knowl- 

 ton, which can be undoubtedly identified with living forms, and 

 moreover, the coniferae are sparingly represented. Even con- 

 ceding the possibility of a slightly cooler climate on the imme- 

 diate seacoast. Professor Knowlton ^ does not believe that these 

 two different floras could have existed at the same time and in 

 so close proximity to each other. 



The correlation of the Merced and Wildcat series with the 

 auriferous gravels does not then appear permissible. It seems 

 that in the maps of the valley border of the Sierra Nevada, the 

 arbitrary line between the Neocene and Pleistocene has been drawn 

 considerably lower than the similar arbitrary line established by 

 Professor Lawson at the top of the Merced series. In other 

 words the Pleistocene as defined on the gold belt maps, occupies 

 a considerably longer time than the Pleistocene on the coast as 

 defined by Professor Lawson. The Merced series is probably 

 contemporaneous with the early Pleistocene of the valley border. 



A detailed examination of the western valley border in the 

 vicinity of Corral Hollow and Kirker Pass would greatly eluci- 



' Bull. Dept. Geol. Univ. Calif., Vol. I, No. 4, pp. 143, 144. 

 ^Oral communication, February 1896. 



