84 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES [Proc. 4TH SER. 
Creek, is quite 3300 feet, and may be more, assuming the 
beds to have been originally horizontal. 
Near the Kern River, where the dip varies from 2° to 8°, 
the measurement of its different parts separately gave an 
aggregate thickness of 3250 feet; yet the apparent thickness 
may be somewhat deceptive because of faulting. 
In the deep wells the thickness is naturally somewhat less, 
since their positions are farther from the shore line, and the 
section is also somewhat reduced by erosion, but these matters 
will be referred to later. 
The Outcrops.—Within the area outlined, the sediments of 
the Neocene are prevailingly sandy in the outcrop, with only 
a moderate proportion of clay and organic shales, such as 
usually compose them in other parts of the coast country. 
Toward the bottom of the series there are conglomerates, 
sands, and volcanic ash, making up near 600 feet of the lower 
portion. Higher up and extending above the middle of the 
series there are shales more or less sandy in the outcrops, or 
shales interstratified with sands, that make up in the aggregate 
a third of the series. Above the shales are sandy beds which 
become generally coarser toward the top, as will be shown 
later. It is thus possible, on the basis of lithology, to separate 
the combined series into three separate portions; but on other 
grounds a two-fold division has been here presented. 
In the outcrops the clastic elements are prominent in nearly 
all parts of the series, and the first impression is apt to be that 
it is chiefly sandy. At the surface the beds are but little con- 
solidated, as the results of erosion show. The harder beds are 
nearly all confined to the lower third of the series, and they 
are prominent only at the base and near the bottom. 
The lithological character of the individual beds is probably 
not always persistent over wide areas, and it is not easy, there- 
fore, to recognize the smaller stratigraphic units in widely 
separated localities. 
Below is given a tabulated generalized statement of two 
sections crossing the area, and similar stratigraphic columns 
of two deep wells of the Kern River district for purposes of 
comparison. 
Fossils have been found at several different horizons in the 
lower part of the series, but more especially at three separate 
