10 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
Series 4, Volume 64, Supplement 1 
Figure 6. Forested karst at the entrance to Waterfall Cave, Yosemite National Park, Tuolumne Co. Jean Krejca. 
known, although volcanic rocks occur in the region. Karst areas within the Mother Lode Karst 
include: the Stanislaus River Canyon, Calaveras Natural Bridges, Rockpile Area, Toppled Table 
Talus Area, Volcano Area, and others. We have data on 409 sites, with 187 biologically sampled 
caves (Table 1). Figure 6 is a view of the entrance of Waterfall Cave, at an elevation of 1700 m on 
the boundary between Sierra Nevada North and South, Tuolumne Co., in Yosemite National Park. 
Two maps (Figs. 7 and 8) depict the insular nature of the Mother Lode Karst, particularly in the 
case of the distribution of the harvestman genus Banksula. 
Cave Region 4 — Sierra Nevada South 
We define this area as Mariposa County in the north to Kern County in the south. There are no 
caves in the San Joaquin Valley portion of Fresno, Tulare, and Kern counties. About 300 caves are 
generally developed in highly isolated carbonate roof pendants embedded in the Sierra Nevada 
Batholith (Joel Despain, pers. comm.). These deposits are of Triassic age. The range of cave ele¬ 
vations is extreme, extending from approximately 500 m to over 3,000 m. Cave development in 
this region is diverse because of the large elevational range and differences in metamorphic alter¬ 
ation of individual roof pendants. In Mariposa County a cluster of five important caves lies near 
the North Fork of the Merced River, and a few talus caves and karst caves have been studied in 
Yosemite National Park. Karst caves receiving the most study are in Tulare County, in Sequoia- 
Kings Canyon National Parks (about 35 caves), and the surrounding Sierra and Sequoia 
National Forests. This region contains some of the longer caves in the state, nine longer than 
