3382 OLDER MESOZOIC FLORAS OF UNITED STATES. 
cross bedding bears witness to the existence of rapid and changing 
currents. As this stratum occupies the highest elevations in this 
region, the nature of the overlying beds is not revealed, and the ques- 
tion whether the period was followed by one of general subsidence 
can be settled only by a study of the higher plains lying some distance 
to the east and north, but it is probable that the bed sank and that 
finer deposits ultimately buried it at the bottom of the Mesozoic sea, 
there to remain until the Tertiary epeirogenic movement raised the 
entire country from 5,000 to 6,000 feet above sea level. 
THE TAYLORSVILLE,! CALIFORNIA, AREA. 
The Mesozoic beds, believed to be of Triassic age, in the vicinity 
of Taylorsville, Plumas County, California, and now generally known 
by the name of that town, are the only ones of that age as yet known 
to me in California from which fossil plants have been collected. 
Lying near the fortieth parallel, the region was naturally entered by 
the geologists of the Fortieth Parallel Survey at an early date, and 
those of the California State surveys also passed over it and made 
important discoveries, including, approximately, that of the age of 
the rocks and some collections of animal fossils. 
Dr. George F. Becker, in 1885, mentions Triassic fossils from 
the Genesee Valley, Plumas County; and Prof. J. 8. Diller, who made 
his first excursion through this region in 1885, gave some account of 
it the following year.’ Shortly after this the region was visited by 
Prof. I. C. Russell, Prof. Alpheus Hyatt, Mr. H. W. Turner, and Dr. 
Cooper Curtice, and large collections of animal remains were made. 
Dr. Curtice, in 1890, and again in 1891, was successful in securing 
a few fossil plants, but all proved to be in an imperfect state of preser- 
vation. The localities from which Dr. Curtice obtained his plants, as 
recorded on his labels, are as follows: ‘‘ Hillside north of a hut near 
Mr. Forman’s house, near Taylorville,” 1890. ‘On trail opposite 
Bostwicks Bar, near Reynolds Ferry, Stanislaus River,” 1891. ‘* Six 
miles from Copperopolis, on route to Sonora, and on grade to Angels 
Creek,” 1891. ‘‘Stanislaus River, near canyon opposite mouth of 
Bear Creek,” 1891. 
In 1891 Messrs. E. G. Paul and James Storrs made still another 
collection of fossil plants from the same general region, their labels 
giving the locality as ‘‘Formans, North Arm of Indian Valley, near 
Taylorville.” 
All these collections came ultimately into my hands, and every effort 
was made to determine them and ascertain their bearing on the age of 
1In all collections from this place and in Professor Diller’s published papers the name is written 
Taylorville, but it is called Taylorsville in the U.S. Postal Guide. 
2 Notes on the stratigraphy of California: Bull. U.S. Geol. Survey No. 19, 1885, p. 21. 
% Notes on the geology of northern California: Bull. U.S. Geol. Survey No. 33, 1886, pp. 9-21. 
