Lawson.] 



Coast of Northern California. 



255 



cannot be held accountable for the relatively excessive corrasion, is 

 evident from the fact that there are several small streams, compara- 

 ble to those along the coast to the southward, which traverse the 

 same terrane in the vicinity of Humboldt Bay, and which have 

 carved out of it well-defined flood-plains. Also, the Eel River itself 

 a little above Scotia is not confined to this terrane, but comes through 

 harder formations similar to those of the coast; and where this is 

 the case the low broad flood-plain is lacking. There is no evidence 

 that the region of the mouth of the Eel River and Humboldt Bay 

 has been for a longer time stationary than the coast to the south- 

 ward. Erom the well-marked terraces, which score the sides of the 

 valley, there is little doubt that it has been subject to the same gen- 

 eral uplift as the coast adjacent to it on the south. The exceptional 

 topography of the mouth of the Eel River thus directs attention to 

 a formation which is unique for the portion of the coast with which 

 we are now concerned. This formation is important in enabling 

 us to establish the post- Pliocene age of a series of diastrophic 

 movements which have affected the coast. A few observations as 

 to its petrography, structure, and geological age, together with an 

 incidental note upon its remarkable sculpture, are therefore here 

 recorded. 



THE WILD-CAT SERIES. 



Distribution . — The region occupied by the terrane is commonly 

 known to the people of Humboldt County as the "Wild-cat Coun- 

 try." If the name is at all suggestive of the weird, the chaotic, and 

 the startling in landscape, it is certainly appropriate. The rugged- 

 ness and abruptness of relief in detail are remarkable. From Bear 

 River Ridge, whence a general view of a characteristic portion of 

 it may be obtained, it presents the aspect of a choppy sea of sharp 

 hills and serrated ridges. These peaks and ridges rise to a maxi- 

 mum altitude of from 1,600 feet to 1,700 feet. Their crests bristle 

 with open timber, much of it dead from the effects of forest fires; 

 and their slopes are covered with shubbery, relieved with great open 

 patches of yellow earth, where the process of land sculpture is in 

 too vigorous operation to permit of the vegetation maintaining its 

 foothold. 



