AGE AND RELATION OF ILVSEMENT COMPLEX. 81 



further examination sliowed that this was not the case, and that the 

 <jjranite in this i)art of the Coast ranges probably does not correspond to 

 the Mesozoic granite in the Sierra Nevada. H. W. Turner has supposed 

 that the granite of the Coast ranges may be of Carl)oniferous age. While 

 there is no evidence against this, there is no reason for assuming Car- 

 boniferous rather than a greater age. Recent investigations have shown 

 that there are probably at least two periods of granite irrui)tion in Cali- 

 fornia. That of Mesozoic age is known to form the greater portion of 

 the Sierra Nevada, while in the Coast and Peninsula ranges much of the 

 granite is supposed to be older. 



The sedimentary portion of the basement complex in the Coast ranges 

 is characterized, in common with similar rocks in the Peninsula range, 

 by an extreme degree of mctamorphism. The })ast season large areas of 

 limestone in the Santa Lucia were carefully examined, without discover- 

 ing any traces of fossils. No outcrops were seen which were not so crys- 

 tallized that it would seem imi)ossible for fossils, if they ever existed, to 

 have been preserved. No fossils of the Triassic or Jurassic have yet been 

 detected in southern California, still those obtained by the writer from 

 the Santa Ana mountains which were determined as Carboniferous may 

 upon closer examination })rove to belong to the Trias. It does not seem 

 at all impossible that the crystalline schists and limestone of the main 

 portion of the Peninsula range, as well as of the Coast range, are much 

 older than the Carboniferous. The granite magma has been injected 

 into these schists, and of course is younger. The presence of none but 

 the most highly metamon)hosed rocks in this series in the area under 

 discussion would indicate a great amount of erosion, for which protracted 

 intervals of elevation above the sea would be necessary. If this were 

 not the case it would seem probable that in some portion of this crys- 

 talline axis less metamorphosed rocks should occur. Too little is yet 

 known about the stratigraphic position of the slate, shale and limestone 

 of the Santa Ana range to say whether or not they are to be correlated 

 with the extremely metamorphosed schists. It is quite i)ossible that 

 there are granites of different age in this portion-of the Peninsula range. 

 As a result of our present knowledge it can be safely said that in that 

 portion of the Coast ranges between i)oint Reyes and San Emidio there 

 is no evidence of Mesozoic granite, but that the whole basement complex 

 is as old as the Carl)oniferous, and i)erhaps much older. 



Rfbdlini of Banc men t Complex to oldest nonci'jjdftlline Rocks. — The relation 

 of the basement complex to the oldest noncrystalline rocks, whicli the 

 writer has termed the pre-Cretaceous for lack of l)etter evidence as to 

 tlieirexact age, has been diflicult of deternjination. 'Hie difliculty results 



