54 



University of California. 



Vol. i. 



trench in the last mile of its course as the land rose. When the 

 uplift brought this volcanic mass within the range of stream action, 

 the stream was deflected by the obstruction to the south, and took 

 a course between the lava and the Santa Lucia Mountain. Here it 

 began to sink a new trench in the granite; and, although it has 

 succeeded in cutting out a gorge nearly 500 feet lower than the 

 level at which it began operations, the work is incomplete and the 

 stream is still cutting down into the granite. This 500-feet gorge is 

 our best measure of the time which it has taken for the coast to rise 

 through the corresponding interval. 



The Carmelo River seems to have recovered and maintained its 

 old trench during the uplift. 



The Present Strand. — The present shore features are strongly 

 marked. The height of the sea cliffs of the present strand indicates 

 a broad wave-cut terrace, and at low tide a considerable portion of 

 this terrace is revealed to observation. The vigor with which the 

 sea is encroaching on the land by the recession of the sea cliffs is 

 evidenced by the fact that along the coast, not far south of Carmelo 

 Bay, the slopes which once served for the habitations of the Indians 

 have been encroached upon and removed to the extent of hundreds 

 of yards ; and upon some of the isolated stacks and islets lying off 

 the coast, and now utterly inaccessible, save to the seabirds, may 

 be seen the thick layer of black loam, full of abalone shells, which 

 everywhere marks the former occupation of the coast by these people. 

 Notwithstanding the vigor of the action of the sea in causing the 

 recession of the cliffs, it is evident that it must have taken several 

 centuries to have effected the development of the shore features of 

 the present strand. The breadth of the subaqueous shelf, or wave- 

 cut terrace of the present strand, out to a depth of six feet below 

 mean low tide (mean of the lower low waters), has been determined 

 by the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey at numerous points along the 

 shore from Pescadero Point to Point Pinos, and is indicated on their 

 chart (scale T2000) by a partial one-fathom submarine contour. A 

 series of measurements made upon the chart show that the breadth 

 of this terrace, from the base of the sea cliff (high-water mark) out 

 to the depth of a fathom, is on an average one-seventh of one 

 mile. The terrace is cut in granite, which is not noticeably de- 



