Vol. 4] Lawson. — Features of the Middle Kern. 



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rise to a less important fan which is confluent with that of 

 Erskine Creek. The smallest creek is that which drains an incip- 

 ient canon in the face of the steep mountain slope which bounds 

 the valley on the east side between Erskine Creek and the South 

 Fork. This creek lies to the north of the Hot Springs and the 

 latter are situated in a depression between its fan and that of 

 Erskine Creek. For half a, mile around the springs the soil in 

 dry weather is white with an incrustation of alkaline salts. But 

 this is more probably referable to seepage from the lower edge 

 of the fans than to the water from the springs. 



The median ridge which divides Hot Springs Valley into 

 two parts is continuous from Isabella to a point opposite the 

 Hot Springs where it attains its maximum height of about 400 

 feet above the flat valley floor to the east. South of this point 

 there is a notch in the ridge which is on a level with the west 

 side of the flat valley and about 60 feet above the Kern. Beyond 

 this to the south the ridge is lower and in less than a mile there 

 is another notch in the ridge cut below the level of the valley 

 floor through which Erskine Creek finds its way to the Kern. 

 At the southern end of the ridge there is still another notch 

 which separates it from the mountain slope which forms the 

 south boundary of the valley. Through this notch Vaughn Creek 

 flows to the Kern with a drop of nearly 100 feet. 



From the above brief outline of the geomorphic features of 

 Hot Springs Valley, it is evident that we have here to deal with 

 conditions indiiced by diastrophic interference with the normal 

 course of erosional evolution. Below Hot Springs Valley the 

 Kern flows in a normal mountain gorge. Above their aggraded 

 flood plain at their confluence, both the Kern and the South Fork 

 flow in sharp, deep canons. Two anomalies are to be accounted 

 for : The first is the aggradation of both streams above their 

 confluence and the second is the dual character of Hot Springs 

 Valley. 



It has been pointed out that the asymmetric ridge of Brecken- 

 bridge Mountain with its steep eastern fault-scarp passes in part 

 northerly into the more symmetrical ridge of the Greenhorn 

 Mountains, on the east side of which no great scarp has been 

 detected. It has been further suggested that the deformation 



