74 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES [Proc. 47TH SER. 
PREFACE 
The first visit of the writer to the Kern River district was 
made in the spring of 1902; and the stratigraphic observations 
begun at that time have been extended from time to time each 
year as opportunity offered, until the summer of 1910. While 
this work was not begun nor carried on with the intention of 
publishing any of the results, yet the study has proved so 
interesting, and the results are in some respects so different 
from what had been anticipated after a considerable study of 
the Neocene deposits along the California coast, that it appears 
worth while to present some of the more general facts in the 
following paper. 
One of the interesting points brought out by this study is 
the suggestion of a rather provincial character in the Neocene 
stratigraphy of the coast, which had been assumed to be 
uniform, at least within the limits of a single unit basin. It 
would be carrying the subject too far at the present time to 
attempt a close correlation of these Kern River deposits with 
any beyond the limits of their basin, but an attempt is made to 
point out the limits of the area within which such a correlation 
may properly be undertaken. The name used for this physio- 
graphic unit, the Temblor Basin, is the name used also for the 
more widely distributed and characteristic strata of the Neo- 
cene, that is the Lower Miocene, or Temblor Beds. There 
are other good reasons that may be brought out later for the 
adoption of this name, but for the present this one is perhaps 
sufficient. 
The fossils and other material which had been collected from 
this region prior to 1906, had been largely donated to the 
California Academy of Sciences, and were lost in the great 
fire. Since then the Academy has made explorations in this 
field, and as a result has not only restored its collections, but 
has added considerably to our knowledge of the Kern River 
region. It is due to acknowledge in this connection the part 
taken in this work by Mr. W. H. Ochsner, Mr. A. G. Carpen- 
ter, and Mr. John P. Buwalda. Mr. Carpenter lived for several 
years at the electrical power-plant station situated on Kern 
River at the contact of the granite and the Neocene sediments. 
