COAST LINE LOS ANGELES TO SAN FRANCISCO. 117 



valley, to the left of the railroad, are Franciscan and Cretaceous beds. 

 On the northeast, to the right, is a large area of granite, probably of 

 pre-Jurassic age. The valley represents a long, narrow trough or 

 s}Ticliiie along which the Tertiary beds have been bent down uito 

 the older rocks. Faultmg along the sides took part in the formation 

 of the synclihe. Erosion afterward removed the Tertiary beds on 

 each side of the down-folded and down-faulted strip, exposing the 

 older rocks of the present hills. The Tertiary rocks of the present 

 valley were protected to some extent by being inlaid, as it were, into 

 the older rocks, but, being soft, they were hollowed out into a valley. 

 At some stage in the erosion and hollowing process Salinas River 

 several miles above Santa Margarita became deflected to the granite 

 on the northeast side of the vaUey. Gradual!}^ the valley as a whole 

 became deeper and wider, but the river had deepened the channel 

 that it had begun in the granite and was unable to leave it. Con- 

 sequently the river to this day leaves the belt of soft Tertiary rocks, 

 turns northeastward mto the hard granite and after flowing for 5 or 

 6 miles tlirough that rock, returns to the main vaUey northwest of 

 Santa Margarita. This is a case of what geologists caU ^^super- 

 imposed drainage/' 



Tlie Santa Margarita region is one of rolling hills well covered 

 with the wild oat (Avena fatuaY and dotted with oaks. It is an 

 excellent stock country. Growing on the bottom land of the ad- 

 jacent valley are some of the finest white oaks {Quercus lobaia) to 



be seen in California. 



Half a mUe beyond Santa Margarita, on the right at milepost 235, 

 is the Producers Transportation Co.'s pump and ten oil tanivs with 

 an aggregate capacity of 75,000 barrels. 



The type section and locality of the Santa Margarita formation 

 is just north of the town, where the soft, more or less limy coarse 

 sandstone of the formation occurs along the railroad for nearly a 

 mile. These beds carry large fossil oyster shells which are character- 

 istic of the Santa Marjiarita formation throughout the Salinas Valley 



to 



region. 



fcf 



,brupt 



t? 



Monterey shales to the coarse 



o 



vice 



hills 



Eaglet. . piver, are composed of granite, A bed of Vaqueros 



Elevation 98.5 feet. (va-kay'ros) saudstouc that can be seen lapping up 



Los Angeles 244 miles. , -^^ ^ ^^^ ^^^ of the hills piob- 



has 



removed by erosion. The sandstone in turn 

 Monterey shale. 



an 



and characteridtic grasaea of California 



***.V- TT^^V^ ^%^XJy V**V V* .^— 



Was brought to this country from Europe 



