"llQ I'he American Geologise. Novombor, 1896 
In discussing the geological liistory of the Coast ranges, or 
of any mountains for that matter, it is very necessary to keep 
in mind the fact that the mere accident of level at which the 
sea stands has no real bearing upon the significance of corru- 
gations on the earth's crust. A mountain range is the result 
of certain structural conditions of the crust and must be con- 
sidered, at least from the point of view of this discussion, as 
such, whether totally submerged, whether partly so or wholly 
above the sea. 
Dall and Harris* have made the following observation con- 
cerning the more recent disturbances in the Coast ranges: 
"The fluctuations and chang;es of level which have characterized the 
coast of this region since the beginning of the Neozoic, as the fossils 
prove, can hardly be realized except by the observer in the field, and 
any attempt at description would read like the vagaries of a vivid imag- 
ination." 
Prof. Lawsonf has also emphasized this same idea in the 
following words : 
"From tlie earliest condition of which we have any record revolution 
has followed so closely on the heels of revolution, and each has effected 
such radical changes in the preceding set of conditions, that it V)ecome8 
clear that the term "event" can only be used by reason of its conven 
ience, and that what we call events are but the culminating phases in a 
wave of diastrophic action which seems never to have ceased." 
The more we study the geological history of this region the 
more we are impressed with its exceeding complexity. 
Pre-Jurassic Complex. The pre-Jurassic basement rocks 
comprise granite, crystalline schists and marble. They extend 
from Bodega head on the coast of Sonoma county in a south- 
easterly direction, though not outcropping continuously, and 
probably join the older rocks of the San Emedio mountains. 
No remnants of uncrystalline strata are associated with this 
complex, and it must be admitted that through some long pro- 
tracted interval antedating the Jurassic these rocks formed 
an elevated mountain range exposed to erosion. 
Upper Jur<(ssic. Resting on these ancient crystallines and 
underlying nearly the whole of the region of the Coast ranges 
south and west of the Klamath mountains, is a series of rocks 
to which the writer has given the name of the Golden Gate 
series. J Accumulating facts point to the truth of the view 
*Bull. 84, U. H. Geol. Surv.. p. 198. 
tXV Annual Report, U. S. Geol. Surv., p. 4(35. 
^Journal of Geology, vol. iii, p. 416. 
