300 



University of California. 



[Vol. 3. 



granite at the time of the invasion of the crust by the latter in a 

 magmatic condition; a remnant in other words of the roof of a 

 vast ba t hoi it h. 



The influence of this belt of stratified rocks upon the character 

 of the stream topography is very apparent. The strata are 

 inclined at high angles to the W.S.W. The canon of the east 

 fork of the Kaweah, above Mineral King, and that of the Little 

 Kern, flowing S.S.E. from Farewell Gap, follow the general 

 strike of the strata and are good illustrations of well controlled 

 subsequent drainage, modified, as will be seen later, by glacia- 

 tion. This subsequent topography is in contrast with the 

 drainage features within the basin of the Upper Kern, where no 

 such control of stratiform structure exists. 



The limestones of this bed of metamorphic rocks afford the 

 necessary conditions for the formation of underground channels 

 of dissolution. On the west wall of the east fork of the Kaweah, 

 a little above Mineral King, at an elevation of a few hundred 

 feet above the bottom of the canon, a large stream issues from 

 such a channel and falls as a beautiful cascade over a bank of 

 travertine deposited from its waters. There are also extensive 

 travertine deposits immediately below Mineral King, large 

 enough to modify, in detail, the geomorphic profile of the valley 

 and to deflect the course of the drainage. 



Quaternary Lavas. — There remains to be mentioned, in this 

 review of the rocks of the region, certain volcanic rocks which 

 have a quite limited distribution in its southwestern and southern 

 part . These are the small volcanoes and lava streams of Toowa 

 Valley, and the lava sheets to the south of Trout Meadows and 

 elsewhere near the confluence of the Kern and Little Kern. 

 These are basaltic in character. The volcanoes of Toowa Valley 

 are of very recent date. The geomorphic evolution of the region 

 had reached its present stage long before the volcanic vents 

 opened. Their contribution to the general morphogenie history 

 is confined to the addition of a few small cones to the relief, and to 

 the obstruction by these, and by the lava streams that flowed from 

 them, of the drainage of Toowa Valley (Plates 35 a and b, 36 a). 



The lava sheets of the country at the confluence of the Kern 

 and Little Kern are of less recent date, and yet they rest as a 



