464 University of California Publications in Geology [Vol. 10 



pological department, University of California, commenced detailed 

 mapping of the various chambers of the cave. 



The bird remains obtained in the course of excavation of Hawver 

 Cave have been studied by Dr. L. H. Miller, 3 and the report on these 

 forms included also a short discussion of the occurrence of the 

 vertebrate remains. 



LOCATION OF HAWVER CAVE 



Hawver Cave is located in Eldorado County five miles almost 

 due east of Auburn, and is approximately 150 miles to the southeast 

 of Potter Creek Cave and Samwel Cave in Shasta County. It is 

 situated to the south of the Middle Pork of the American River at 

 an elevation of 1300 feet or about 700 feet above the present bed of 

 that stream. The county road which extends from Auburn to Cool 

 and thence to Placerville passes immediately to the southwest of the 

 entrance to the cave. 



As shown by the areal geology mapped in the Sacramento folio, 4 

 a narrow strip or lens of limestone, lying within an area of amphi- 

 bolitic schist, extends in a northerly direction from the vicinity of 

 Cool to the Middle Fork of the American River and slightly beyond 

 the north bank of that stream. At the present time this limestone, 

 as exposed on the south bank, is being extensively quarried by the 

 Pacific Portland Cement Company. Indications of earlier operations 

 are still to be seen in the presence of deserted lime-kilns situated close 

 to Hawver Cave. 



RELATION OF CAVE TO TOPOGRAPHY 



A noticeable physiographic feature of the Sierran region in the 

 vicinity of Hawver Cave to-day is the remarkably even sky-line, 

 indicative of a former physiographic cycle which plainly marks the 

 1500-foot elevation. The present bed of the Middle Fork lies approx- 

 imately 900 feet below this level. It is generally assumed that the 

 major cutting of the canons, characteristic of the principal streams of 

 the Sierra Nevada, such as the American River, was accomplished after 

 the Sierran uplift which produced the eastern fault-scarp, and occurred 

 presumably during early Pleistocene time. Whether or not the his- 



3 Miller, L. H., Contributions to avian palaeontology from the Pacific coast 

 of North America. Univ. Calif. Publ., Bull. Dept. Geol., vol. 7, pp. 73-75, 1912. 

 * U. S. Geologic Atlas, Sacramento Folio, no. 5, 1894. 



