6 Adventures in Scenery 



of the State, or any natural resource, but is related directly to 

 geology and geologic processes. The geological story is long 

 time has been long and the story is somewhat complicated. 

 The story, however, is fascinating, for it contains the key to 

 the utilization of all natural resources. There was probably 

 land in what is now California in the very early stages of the 

 continent, the Archaean. When the great Appalachian Up- 

 heaval occurred, by which the great mountain system of eastern 

 North America was uplifted, bent and folded, California was 

 probably largely covered by the sea, for rocks of Palaeozoic age 

 (Cambrian, Devonian, Carboniferous) occur in California. 

 The great Rocky Mountain system had not yet been "born." 

 A vast sea extended over what is now the great central valley 

 of the United States. Waters covered the Interior Basin, which 

 embraces a vast area in Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, 

 and Colorado. It was not until Jurassic time that the begin- 

 ning of the Sierra Nevada Range occurred. From and after 

 Jurassic time the panorama of California's history has been 

 enacted and the record has been marked in the rocks and land 

 forms. 



