64 HAROLD IV. FAIRBANKS 



ferent points which I feel are open to question in the general 

 order in which they occur in the report. There are several 

 statements in a synopsis of this report/ published a year and a 

 half ago, which will be included in the criticism. There is a 

 failure, which is without doubt due to an oversight, to give recog- 

 nition to some contemporaneous and earlier work in the same 

 general field and upon the same topics. - 



Passing over the Montara granite and the associated 

 marbles which exhibit the same relations and have with- 

 out doubt the same history as similar rocks in the Gavilan 

 and Santa Lucia ranges, we come to the author's Francis- 

 can series, the oldest uncrystalline terrane. Professor Lawson 

 divides it into five petrographic divisions. The lowest consists 

 of conglomerate, sandstone, shale, etc., and is well exposed at 

 Point San Pedro. He considers that this division may possibly 

 be older and underlie the strata north of San Pedro valley uncon- 

 formably, because fragments of shale similar to that at the point 

 occur in the sandstone north of the valle}^ The fact seems not 

 to have been noticed that fragments of similar shale are found in 

 the basal conglomerate on the point. The conglomerates are 

 identical in character with those at the base of the Golden Gate 

 series on the Monterey coast, and are without much doubt of the 

 same age. 



The " foraminiferal limestone" and "radiolarian chert" form 

 perhaps the most interesting portions of the series. They are 

 dwelt upon in detail, particularly the " cherts." According to 

 Professor Lawson the latter are hard siliceous rocks of varying 

 degrees of purity, and are "prevailingly of a dull brownish red 

 color, although other shades occur." He says that "in many 



'Am. Geol., June 1895. 



''Bull. Geol. Soc. of Am., Vol. XI, pp. 71-102. The results of this work were 

 •■ead before the Geological Society of America nearly a year^in advance, and published 

 six months prior to the first of the papers under discussion. The subjects concerned 

 were the position and character of the marbles of the Coast Ranges, and especially 

 the rocks constituting the Golden Gate series (Franciscan series of Professor Lawson), 

 the nature of the sandstones and the radiolarian origin of the jaspers, as well as the 

 geologic position of the series. 



