390 Adventures in Scenery 



lands. Many channels, dry most of the year, particularly those 

 from the Coast Range on the west, lead into the valley. The 

 flood waters from these channels cannot reach the main river 

 at all, and therefore spread out over the lowlands on either 

 side, and eventually disappear chiefly by evaporation. 



Rocklin, 11 miles (El. 249 feet); Auburn, 125 miles (El. 

 1,360 feet); Colfax, 143 miles (El. 2,422 feet); Gold Run, 

 154 miles (El. 3,224 feet) ; Emigrant Gap, 172 miles (El. 5,225 

 feet); Donner Pass (Summit), 193 miles (El. 7,135 feet); 

 R. R. Summit (El. 7,012 feet) ; Truckee, 208 miles (El. 5,820 

 feet) ; Reno, Nev., 243 miles (El. 4,497 feet) . 



Cross American River to Gold 

 Dredging Fields 



Crossing American River, which joins the Sacramento just 

 north of the city, do not fail to visit old Sutter's Fort. The flat 

 plain of the Great Valley continues 1 8 miles, to Roseville, where 

 begins the Sierra slope. At the west base of the Sierra slope 

 brown Upper Cretaceous and Tertiary sandstones and clays are 

 exposed. These formations are younger than the rocks form- 

 ing the mass of the Sierra Range. These formations have not 

 been squeezed, folded or altered by metamorphism. Remnants 

 of the lavas that were poured down the Sierra slope during 

 Tertiary time cap some of the foothills. 



Great gold-dredging fields lie along the Sierra slope where it 

 merges into the valley plain. Near Folsom, a few miles south 

 and east of Rocklin, where American River emerges upon the 

 plain of the Great Valley, huge electrically operated dredges 

 scoop up the gold-bearing earth, which is mechanically washed 

 and the gold recovered. The gold was brought down the Sierra 

 slope and deposited in the river gravels in recent geologic time. 



Granite Quarries; Granite Soils 



Produce Fruits 



Rocklin, named for the granite rock which is quarried there, 

 is the principal granite producing district in California, with 



