1934] English: The Fernando Group near Newhall, California 207 



are well exposed on the ridge to the north of Elsmere Canon, where 

 there is an abrupt and striking- change from a medium-grained sand- 

 stone to an overlying resistant coarse conglomerate which stands out 

 very prominently on the otherwise even slope of the ridge. A mile 

 farther west on the same ridge this conglomerate is less prominent 

 and the change in lithology is not so abrupt. On Elsmere Ridge beds 

 typical of both the upper and lower divisions are interstratified. The 

 conglomerate on the north side of Elsmere Canon has a strike of 

 N 50° W, and dips 12° N. The lower part of the shaly beds and the 

 granitic surface on which they were deposited have a strike of N 65° W, 

 and dip 20° N. Along with the difference in attitude there is a thin- 

 ning out of the shaly beds toward the east so that the conglomerate 

 rests directly on the granite at the head of Elsmere Canon. The 

 change from marine sandy shales to the overlying coarse fluviatile 

 conglomerates, marked at least locally by tuiconformity, makes a nat- 

 ural division of the Fernando group into an upper and lower part 

 for the eastern end of the Santa Clara River Valley. 



The principal localities at which collections of fossils were made 

 are stratigraphically within one hundred feet of the base of the sandy 

 shale in Elsmere Canon. 5 Many of the fossils come from beds only a 

 few feet above the granite. Small collections of the same species were 

 made on Elsmere Ridge and in Grapevine Canon on the south side of 

 the San Fernando Pass. The overlying conglomerates and sandstones 

 are non-fossiliferous. 



PICO CANON AREA 



Although the region of Pico Canon was one of the first oil-pro- 

 ducing localities in the state, the only published account of the geology 

 of the area is that of Eldridge, previously mentioned. Eldridge 

 mapped the shaly beds near the middle of the Pico anticline as be- 

 longing to the Vaqueros formation, which was seemingly conformably 

 overlain by Fernando gravels. From a hasty examination of the area 

 between Pico Canon and the San Fernando Pass the writer came to 

 the conclusion that at least part of the shaly beds in the Pico anticline 

 are part of the Fernando group and not of Vaqueros age. 



■"IT. C. Loc. 1601, NW % of NW % of SE 14, sec, 17, T. 3 N, E. 15 W, Mt, 

 San Bernardino, B. and M.; in the bed of the canon, about one hundred yards 

 downstream from the contact with the granite. U. C. Loc. 1602, about one hun- 

 dred yards east of 1601, up small gulch which branches off to the east of the main 

 creek. 



