ROOKS OV THE BASEMENT CO^fPLEX. 79 



western axis belong the Santa TiUcia range and the series of low outcrops 

 extending diagonally across the u])])er Salinas valley to the San Jose 

 range. The latter is the axis which appears to be the direct prolonga- 

 tion of the San Eniidio and Peninsula ranges. Tlie greatest width of 

 the crystalline rocks of the Santa Lucia range is about 25 miles; of the 

 Gavilan range, 12 miles. It is probable that the crystalline schists con- 

 nect underneath man}' of the intervening valle3^s, filled with later forma- 

 tions, and all taken together form one original axis of ui)heaval. 



Crystalline ScJiists and Limestone. — The crystalline schists are chiefly 

 confined to the Santa lAicia range, where they are more extensively 

 developed than the granite. In fact, they form the greater portion of 

 that very ragged region, from a few miles south of Carmel bay to the 

 San Antonio valley. The range rises very abruptly from the ocean, 

 forming the grandest scenery to be found anywhere along the coast of 

 California. The crest is formed of limestone for a number of miles. It is 

 remarkable for the extreme degree of metamorphism which it has under- 

 gone. It is generally coarsely crystalline, and contains in many places a 

 yellow mica, green pyroxene, molybdenite and graphite. The limestone 

 occurs in an irregular lenticular form, the different outcrops varying from 

 but a few feet to several thousand in thickness. It is found both in the 

 granite and in the schists ; in the latter case conformable to the stratifica- 

 tion. Quartzites, hornblende and mica-schists appear, and undoubtedly 

 represent sedimentary terranes, but by far the greater part of the rock is 

 gneissoid. Plow much of this latter structure is due to a movement of a 

 granitic magma while solidifying and how much to an original sedi- 

 mentary stratification is not certain. On the western sloi)e of the range 

 there are large areas of a rock consisting of (piartz, feldspar and chlorite 

 which may represent an older granite. The line of steep mountains west 

 of the Salinas valley, between the Arroyo Seco and Placitos creek, also 

 belongs to the Santa lAicia axis. Gneiss, mica-schist and small areas of 

 limestone occur here. The amount of massive granite is small, being 

 most prominent about mount Toro. A small area of limestone outcroi)s 

 in the San Jose granite range. Crystalline limestone appears in many 

 places in the granite and gneiss of the Gavilan range. It is much })urer 

 than in the Santa Lucia, consisting almost wholly of calcium carbonate. 



Granite. — In only one locality in the Coast ranges — that about Carmel 

 bay, described by Dr Lawson^' — has the granite been studied in detail. 

 This granite is remarkable for the large crystals of orthoclase, with inclu- 

 sions of the other com})onents. A number of slides were prepared by the 

 writer of specimens from different granite exposures through the central 

 and southern Coast ranges. Distinctly porphyritic granite of the Carmel 



* liull. Dept. Geology, University of California, vol. i. 

 XII-Buix. Geol. Soc. Am., Vol. 6. 1894. 



