362 The American Geologist. June, 1902. 
A considerable interval is indicated between their epochs of 
deposition. In this hiatus I will place the Mellenia formation. 
The latter is more clearly related to the Upper Pliocene series 
than is the San Pablo of the San Fernando range. The 
Mellenia and San Pablo cannot be contemporary because in 
that case some of the lava pebbles must have reached the 
neighboring San Pablo sea, and the conglomerate and sand- 
stone south of Newhall should show the influence of the vol- 
canic material. The Mellenia is not probably older than the 
San Pablo because there is no evidence of such an interval 
between it and the Lang gravel as to have been occupied by 
the deposition in the neighboring sea of 5000 feet of conglom- 
erate and sandstone. On the contrary, the evidence is that 
the San Pablo area of the San Fernando region was dry land 
while the Mellenia series was being deposited in an inland 
fresh-water lake in the Soledad region and then later another 
orographic disturbance greatly extended the Pliocene basin, 
enabling the Upper Pliocene (Paso Robles) series to lap over 
on to the San Pablo. I shall, therefore, provisionally class the 
Mellenia series as Middle Pliocene and suggest that it may 
be an equivalent in time of the fresh-water Orindan Berkeley- 
an and Campan series, the Middle Pliocene representatives 
about the bay of San Francisco. 
The Saugus or upper fluviatile division of the gravel ser- 
ies is classed with the, Pliocene because it belongs on the in- 
ferior side of the great orographic disturbance which initiated 
typical Quaternary conditions of the Pacific coast. It is the 
very latest Pliocene in the state. It is due to the same long- 
continued and slow subsidence of this Santa Clara basin as 
the other members of the gravel series; and its accumulation 
continued until it was folded and erosion began. If the early 
Quaternary disturbance in the Pacific coast country occur- 
red at the same time as the eperiogenic uplift that inaugu- 
rated the Quaternary in the eastern states, this Saugus div- 
ision is the chronologic equivalent of the Lafayette formation. 
Tue Prru Upper PLIOCENE BASIN. 
Near Gorman’s station in the extreme northwestern cor- 
ner of the Los Angeles county there is a small Pliocene basin 
lying south of the Tehachapai range and east of Fraser 
mountain. The main basin is oval in shape, elongated to 
