2 



University of California. 



[Vol. 3. 



our Quaternary events and those of the country east of the 

 Rocky Mountains, but there is never any certainty that we are 

 dealing - with chronologic equivalents. In time, certain datum 

 planes mav be traced across the Cordilleran belt and our classi- 

 fication tied to that of the Eastern States. In the meantime, 

 only confusion could result from the use of the same epoch 

 titles on the Pacific as on the Atlantic Coast. We have the 

 same reasons for setting up an independent classification as 

 exist in regard to Europe and the eastern portion of the United 

 States. 



The above conviction will not prevent the writer from 

 attempting to rationally refer, by means of erosion studies, the 

 deposition of certain of our California deposits to about the 

 same stages of the Quaternary era as certain drift sheets and 

 associated phenomena in the Mississippi Basin. This is the 

 special purpose of this paper, and Southern California is selected 

 as the field of operation because in that section of the State 

 the sequence of Quaternary events is most complete and the 

 relative ages of the formations are most easily determined. 



Mr. Ralph Arnold has recently completed an extended study 

 of the marine Pleistocene deposits of the Southern California 

 coast. He presented a paper on the subject at the last meeting 

 (December, 1901) of the Cordilleran Section of the Geological 

 Society of America, but the full memoir is not yet in print. 

 Through the courtesy of Mr. Arnold, I am in possession of his 

 correlation table and can avail myself to a certain extent of the 

 results of his work. I shall discuss this marine Pleistocene only 

 so far as to fix upon its probable age as indicated by the erosion 

 accomplished on it since its uplift. Aside from the marine 

 terraces pretty thoroughly discussed by Lawson,* Fairbanks, t 

 and Smith, + and the associated sands and gravels studied by 

 Arnold, the Quaternary of Southern California is virtually a 

 virgin field. 



*The Post-Pliocene Di:istrophism of the Coast of Southern California, Bull. 

 Dept. Geol., Univ. Calif., vol. 1, No. i, 1893, pp. 115-100. 



t Oscillations of the Coast of California During the Pliocene and Pleistocene, 

 American Geologist, vol. XX, October, 1897, pp. 213-245. 



t A Topographic Study of the Islands of Southern California, Bull. Dept. Geol., 

 Univ. Calif., vol. 2, No. 7, September, 1900, pp. 179-230. 



