Lawson.] 



Coast of Northern California. 



247 



gravel beaches also occur in the embayments at high altitudes. A 

 fine beach of this kind is well exposed at the schoolhouse on the 

 road between Sea View and Plantation, a few miles north of Fort 

 Ross. The lower wave-cut terraces, in the vicinity of Fort Ross, 

 are very broad, and are among the particularly fine examples of this 

 type of topography, for which the coast of California is remarkable. 



From Fort Ross northward the lower terraces are finely dis- 

 played in practical continuity throughout Sonoma and Mendocino 

 Counties, and along the coast of Humboldt County as far as it was 

 followed, i. e., to the mouth of the Eel River, but both in Humboldt 

 and in the extreme northern portion of Mendocino, the sea-cliffs of 

 the present strand are in such vigorous recession that the terraces 

 have been in places undermined and obliterated. 



It is not deemed necessary for the purpose of this paper to give 

 detailed descriptions of these lower terraces which score the edge 

 of the coastal plateau. Were there any doubt of their character, it 

 would perhaps be desirable to enter into details. If, however, the 

 judgment of the writer may be taken, it will be sufficient to say that 

 they are wave-cut terraces of the most unequivocal kind, presenting 

 in full all the characters of such forms, viz., the seaward slope, the 

 planing off of the upturned strata, the residual stacks, the beach 

 boulders, and the constant sea-cliff with its horizontal intersection of 

 the plain of the terrace. Among the broadest and most sharply de- 

 fined of these lower terraces are those in the vicinity of Point Arena, 

 particularly the one upon which the upper part of the town of that 

 name is built. Its exceptionally perfect and clear-cut profile is due to 

 the fact that it has been carved out of the soft Miocene shale (Monte- 

 rey Series), which here occupies the coast. The terraces here are 

 quite similar to those which have been carved out of the same forma- 

 tion at Santa Cruz and San Pedro Hill, on the southern coast; and the 

 repeated association of remarkably fine, broad, sharply cut terraces 

 with the occurrence of this formation on the coast, seems to indi- 

 cate that the latter is particularly well adapted for the sculpture of 

 such forms, and for their subsequent preservation. This broad ter- 

 race at Point Arena has recently been ascribed by Mr. George 

 Davidson, of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, to ice action. 

 He says: "Point Arena is considered one of the most beautiful 



