SRODIES AN THE NEOCENE OF CALIFORNIA, 435 
Unconformably below these deposits lies a series of sandy 
and clayey strata, partly consolidated, having locally a thickness 
of nearly a mile. This series, called recently by Professor 
Lawson* the Merced series, has been gently folded and has now 
been largely removed from the higher parts of the range. It is 
quite fossiliferous, and exhibits an interesting life history. In 
age it is mainly Pliocene, but appears to run into the Pleistocene 
above, and into the Miocene below. 
Contormably below the Merced series is the Monterey series, 
one of the earliest of California formations to be studied and 
described. It isa great thickness of light-colored, bituminous 
shale, containing few fossils, and similar in structure to the 
Merced series. It is of Miocene age. 
~Unconformably below the preceding series, and having con- 
siderable prominence in the Santa Cruz Mountains, is a great 
series of sandstones, shales, and conglomerates, which we pro- 
pose to call the Pescadero series. They consist in part of the 
San Francisco sandstone of previous writers. The section near 
Pescadero gives a questionable thickness of over 10,000 feet. 
They have been greatly disturbed and faulted. Their age has 
been shown to be in part Miocene, and is thought to extend 
down through the Eocene and possibly into the Cretaceous. 
Still more prominent about San Francisco and through the 
Santa Cruz Mountains is a group of metamorphic and igneous 
rocks. They are cherts, sandstones, limestone, granite, serpen- 
tine, etc. They might be grouped together as the pre-Tertiary 
rocks of the Coast Ranges. 
A small amount of Tertiary igneous rock occurs in the Santa 
Cruz Range. 
STRATIGRAPHY. 
Below is given a columnar section of the Santa Cruz Moun- 
tains. The formations there given will be briefly described, 
beginning with the oldest. 
The metamorphics—Under the term metamorphics may be 
included the beds of limestone occurring through the mountains, 
lUnivio: Cal. Bull Dept of Geol I> 143: 
