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SANTA MARIA OIL DISTRICT, CALIFORNIA. 
SANTA YNEZ MOUNTAINS. 
The Santa Ynez Mountains form a long, narrow range bordering 
the Santa Barbara Channel and bounded on the north by the westward 
flowing Santa Ynez River. The trend of the range is east and west 
and has determined the unusual direction taken by the coast south 
of it. The range is about 9 miles in average width and contains two 
lengthwise zones. The southern zone comprises a ridge with remark¬ 
ably even sky line, which rises directly from the sea. This ridge 
increases in height toward the east from an elevation of 1,000 feet 
at Point Conception to 3,800 feet east of Refugio Pass and more 
beyond the boundary of the area mapped. At Point Conception 
the coast bends abruptly to the northwest around the end of this 
ridge, but north of Jalama Creek a similar ridge, that of the mountain 
El Tranquillon, follows the coast as far as Point Arguello, where the 
shore bends again abruptly and assumes a northward course. The 
second zone lies between these two coast ridges and Santa Ynez 
River. It has more the nature of a foothill region, forming a partly 
individual range of hills and ridges separated from the coastal ridge 
by longitudinal valleys. The average slope from the summit of the 
range down to the sea is at an angle of 20° to 30°. In places the 
angle is less, but on some individual slopes it is greater. The width 
of the range on the north of the summit ridge is greater and the slope 
more gentle and more broken than on the southern abrupt slope to 
the sea. Viewed from the ocean on the south the range has the 
appearance of a steep, even-topped breastwork; from the north it 
appears as a belt of discontinuous hills and ridges grouped in front 
of and almost hiding the long culminating ridge. The Santa Ynez 
Range forms the most prominent elbow on the California coast. 
The topography of this range reflects the structure more than 
does that of the San Rafael Mountains, and deformation within it 
does not appear to have gone so far. 
In the high mountainous region east of the area mapped, north 
of Santa Barbara and south of the south end of the great central 
valley of California, centering at Mount Pinos, lies the point of con¬ 
vergence of all the ranges of mountains in this part of California- 
the Santa Ynez Range coming in from the west; the San Rafael 
Range from the northwest; the Santa Lucia and San Jose ranges 
from the country north of Cuyama River; the Mount Diablo Range, 
or ^easternmost member of the Coast Ranges, from still farther north 
of west; the Tehachapi Range, running south westward from the 
south end of the Sierra Nevada; and the San Gabriel Range, which 
comes from the southeast as the continuation of the Coast Ranges 
O 
in southern California. Here the northwest-southeast lines of 
structure, dominant throughout the major part of the State, are met 
