86 Adventures in Scenery 



mountain ranges have been born and worn down by erosion and 

 the unceasing action of the elements. Lands that have been 

 land during long periods and on which organized systems of 

 living things had been developed have subsided and been cov- 

 ered by the waters of the sea. Just when living things first 

 appeared we do not know. We know that life appeared very 

 long ago. Fragments of the history of plants and animals have 

 been gathered from the rocks. Successive events of upheaval 

 and subsidence of the land occurred, geographic changes that 

 have marked important chapters in the long history that we 

 undertake to read in the rocks. If the narrative seems to lack 

 completeness it may be stated that our knowledge of the record 

 is not complete. If the narrative does not possess interest, if 

 the story has not been told so as to lead the reader to see in Cali- 

 fornia more than scenery, more than climate, more than rocks, 

 mountains, great rivers and deep gorges, wealth of mines and 

 minerals, beautiful shores and fine harbors, charm of desert and 

 broad fertile fields, if he does not see beyond these to the great 

 geologic causes which produced them, then the story has not 

 been adequately told. "He who does not see beyond the rocks 

 does not see the rocks." 



If the history of California is long so also the record is com- 

 plex. Probably no region embraced within the boundary lines 

 of any single State has as complicated a history as has Califor- 

 nia. The reader maybe has become wearied of names and geo- 

 logic facts. Yet these facts are history. Names are but the 

 handles for convenience. The facts are of fundamental impor- 

 tance. On these rest the natural resources of the State. On 

 the knowledge and understanding of these facts rests the devel- 

 opment of industries. If the reader has been wearied in the 

 attempt to follow the narrative of the historic panorama the 

 fault is that of the writer. The story is interesting because it 

 is what Nature has unfolded. If the story has not been inter- 

 estingly told it is not the fault of the facts. 



