An Introductory Pre-view 3 



by the waters of the seas. Then again, the sea bottom was 

 raised and again upheaved into lofty mountain ranges. Ar- 

 chaean rocks the oldest in the world lie exposed to sun and 

 rain alongside of formations deposited in the latest geologic 

 period. The ocean laves beaches that are many hundreds of 

 feet lower than beaches above them on which are remains of 

 living things of past ages, along with wave-worn pebbles which 

 were rolled and rounded by the same kind of waves that now 

 beat upon the shores, but which gave up their grinding long 

 ago when the land was uplifted to its present higher level. 



Adventures in scenery? Yes, highways over which roll auto- 

 mobiles in high gear from palms to pines; from gardens which 

 would compare favorably with Eden (would make what we 

 know of the Garden of Eden look like a weed patch) to deserts 

 of sage brush, cacti, and horned toads; from onion fields with 

 rows a mile long to wheat ranches and cotton fields that extend 

 beyond the range of vision; a turn of the road to ledges of 

 granite in contact with limestone (often changed to crystalline 

 marble), shale, and conglomerate rocks, to steep mountain 

 climbs, across broad open plains, over rivers in which there is 

 no water; to sand dunes that travel today in one direction and 

 tomorrow return in the opposite direction; to oil wells and gold 

 mines; across irrigation ditches in which water to the unin- 

 itiated observer seems to be running up hill; to vineyards in 

 which wines are produced that cheer but do not inebriate; to 

 orchards of apples, pears, peaches, and plums, oranges, lemons, 

 apricots, and fruits the like of which are seen, by most, only in 

 stores; mountain crags that seem to pierce the sky, and chasms 

 with nearly vertical walls, their bottoms thousands of feet 

 below the plain; level plains and broad acres of silty loam soils. 

 Yes, this is California, land where the sun sets every day behind 

 the Golden Gate, the geologists' paradise. Geology from a car 

 window, geology on foot or on horseback, the lover of the out- 

 doors may not be a geologist, but in California he will enjoy 

 geology. He may not call it geology the name does not count 



