1 1 6 University of California. ivol. i. 



PAGE. 



The Merced Series 142 



General Note 142 



Fossils 144 



Thickness 146 



Depression and Uplift 148 



Discrimination of Orogenic and Epeirogenic Effects 149 



Development of Montara Mountain 150 



The Evidence from the River Valleys 151 



The Santa Clara-San Benito Valley 151 



The Salinas Valley 154 



The Santa Maria Valley 155 



The Santa Clara Valley of the South...- 157 



Conclusions 157 



INTRODUCTION. 



No clearly defined ideas seem as yet to have been developed in 

 geological literature as to the nature and extent of the diastrophic 

 movements which have affected the coast of California in post-Plio- 

 cene time. It is the aim of the present paper to contribute to the 

 development of such ideas, and to enlist, if possible, the interest of 

 geologists in the latest chapter in the geology of the coast. The 

 recency of the record, the vastness of the events, the precision with 

 which they may be established, all contribute to make it the most 

 fascinating" as well as perhaps the most important chapter of our 

 local geological history. Nor is its interest of a purely local char- 

 acter. Students of Pleistocene America will profit greatly by a 

 knowledge of the facts so easily ascertained on this coast. The 

 recent evolution of the physiography of the continent has a pro- 

 found human, as well as a scientific interest. In no part of the con- 

 tinent is the interest so intense as in California. Nowhere is the 

 record so legible; nowhere will greater discoveries reward the 

 researches of the enthusiastic geologist. Yet how few have been 

 the workers in this field! How scant are the opportunities afforded 

 by State aid for systematic research ! 



The present inquiry is the outcome of studies upon the elevated 

 strands of Carmelo Bay, and the curiosity which was thereby 



