EDITORIAL 69 



Two localities of Devonian beds were described ; one in the Santa 

 Ritas and another at the northern end of the Santa Catalina Moun- 

 tains. 



The probable existence of Cambrian beds at several places was 

 pointed out and the ancient tabular gneissic rocks of the Catalinas 

 were referred to the Archean, and regarded as probable equivalents 

 of the Huronian and Laurentian. 



The Sierra Madre near Pasadena. By E. W. Claypole, Pasadena, 

 Cal. 



The paper opened with an expression of the surprise with which 

 geologists who have worked principally in the East witness the enor- 

 mous development and the excessive diastrophism exhibited by Ter- 

 tiary and even by very late Tertiary strata in the West, and these 

 characters are as well seen in California as in any other western state. 

 The whole Tertiary period has apparently been signalized by thick 

 accumulation, with alternate elevation and depression. Not less has 

 its passage been characterized by volcanic outbursts of intense energy 

 and by quiet outflows of lava almost unequaled in massiveness and 

 extent. 



Two great mountain ranges diverging in the north and meeting 

 again in Kern county, inclose between them the San Joaquin Valley. 

 This southern meeting forms one of the great natural features of the 

 state — the Tehachapi Divide. 



Speaking now only for the southern part of the state, there seems 

 ample ground for the belief that these ranges have existed from at 

 least Cretaceous if not from earlier Mesozoic time. It is not otherwise 

 easy to find a source for the enormous Pliocene, Miocene and Eocene 

 accumulations of the Pacific margin so far from the Sierra Nevada. 



Thick gneissic strata of two types, and standing nearly vertical,, 

 compose the range of the Sierra Madre near Pasadena. That to the 

 south contains a large proportion of hornblende, weathers rapidly and 

 deeply, and is consequently eroded with comparative facility. That 

 to the north is largely feldspathic, contains little hornblende, and of it 

 consist the white crags that stand out so boldly on the upper slopes. 

 The former of these masses cannot be less than 2000-3000 feet thick, 

 but it does not rise in the mountain to a greater height than 3500 feet. 



Of the wreckage from these two gneissic masses the material filling 

 the valley of Pasadena is composed. From great bowlders near the 



