Lawson.] 



The Upper Kern Basin. 



293 



in this field, and so imposed upon the writer the task of narrating 

 and discussing the observations made upon the trip as best he 

 may. But while gratefully acknowledging Mr. Gilbert's cooper- 

 ation in the field the writer has, thereby, no intention of throwing 

 upon him the onus for the shortcomings of this discussion. 

 That responsibility rests with the writer. 



It is needless to say that neither the record nor the discussion 

 pretend to exhaust the geology of the Upper Kern Basin. The 

 region is replete with geological interest and only some of the 

 more salient problems are taken up; and even these suffer from 

 the partial character of the exploration of the region. 



The basin of the Upper Kern presents features of exceptional 

 interest to geomorphologists, and the purpose of the paper, as 

 its title implies, is to outline these features and discuss their 

 genesis. While the paper professes to deal primarily with the 

 basin of the Upper Kern, certain features of the region immed- 

 iately adjoining it are incidentally referred to by way of supple- 

 menting the account of the basin itself. A brief description of 

 the rocks of the region, in which petrographic technicalities 

 are dispensed with as far as possible, is given at the outset of 

 the paper as a necessary introduction to the subject matter. The 

 conclusions to which the discussion leads have a general bearing 

 upon the historical geology of the Sierra Nevada, and this bearing 

 is indicated at the close of the paper. The illustrations, when 

 not otherwise indicated, are from photographs by the writer. 

 The map is based on the blue print compilation by Professor J. N. 

 LeConte. All new altitudes are based on barometric measure- 

 ments made by Professors J.N. LeConte and A. G. McAdie. 



PETROGRAPHIC AND STRUCTURAL FEATURES. 



Rod's and Geomorphy. — Fundamental to the understanding of 

 the geology of any region is a knowledge of the rocks which 

 underlie it. Especially is this the case when the problems with 

 which we have to deal are those of geomorphogeny such as concern 

 us very largely in the discussion of this region. It will, therefore, 

 be appropriate to first state briefly the general petrographic 

 characteristics of the basin and of such portions of the neighboring 

 territory as may be conveniently discussed in connection with it. 



