46 
GEOLOGY. 
Hills have a different appearance, and more nearly resemble the Ocoya creek beds; they are 
similarly cut by numerous dry ravines ; and high banks, or vertical cliffs, have been formed by 
floods, showing that the strata are soft and unconsolidated. They present alternations of white 
and buff-colored clays, with red layers, containing a large portion of oxide of iron. By the 
action of the weather, these clay-cliffs are worn into fantastic forms ; and at one locality, I saw 
the most extraordinary combinations of conical peaks rising, one above the other, to sharp points, 
like church steeples ; at a short distance they looked like a forest of spires. 
These soft strata are very probably of the same age as the Ocoya creek formation, and the 
harder and uplifted strata nearer the granite are probably older. 
When we arrived opposite the high cliffs of sandstone, several mountain sheep were seen 
among the rocks, and others were afterwards observed several miles lower down in the valley. 
It is probable that they are numerous in that vicinity, it being rarely visited by hunters and 
others. On our return through the valley where so many bear tracks were seen, we ascended 
a high hill and reached a high, open space well covered by grass. Jose soon discovered two or 
three deer at a distance, and succeeded in killing one. Game of all kinds is peculiarly abundant 
here, the high grassy valleys and the secure retreats among the rocks being very favorable. 
We reached the entrance of the Canada de las Uvas about sundown, after a long and fatiguing 
ride, the sun’s rays being exceedingly hot and oppressive at the foot of the hills, where there 
was hut little or no wind. 
September 23.—We left camp and travelled over the same trail we followed on the 20th, and 
reached the depot camp at the Tejon in the afternoon. 
The Indians of the Tejon make beautiful baskets, or shallow trays, out of a round wiry grass, 
which they wind and weave together very dexterously. The grass is stained with different 
colors, and is worked in so as to produce different geometrical figures. These baskets are highly 
valued, and are used to contain food after being cooked, or even to boil water in by means of 
hot stones, the weaving of the grass being so close that they are completely water-tight. They 
last for years, and are called coritas. 
CANADA DE LAS UVAS. 
September 29.—Started with the party to survey the Canada de las Uvas. Large boulders 
and erratic masses of rock were found all along the banks of the Tejon creek, as far as the 
adobe house. 
At the entrance of the Canada, the abundance of boulders along the little creek which flows 
out from the pass, gave good indications of the rocks exposed along its sides. This accumula¬ 
tion has already been noticed, but at this visit a greater variety of blocks of granite, syenite and 
metamorphic rocks was found. A boulder of sandstone was also found, filled with fossil shells, 
beautifully preserved. The shells were white, and looked as fresh and solid as if taken from the 
water but the day before. The mass was broken up and several species obtained and preserved. 1 
The first outcrop of rock is granitic or metamorphic, the rock being traversed by lines of 
structure. It contains a large amount of dark-green mica, to the apparent exclusion of horn¬ 
blende. Veins composed almost wholly of mica, in small scales, were also seen ; these were so 
black as to resemble strings of hornblende or iron ore. A white, silvery mica was also found beyond. 
The Canada is bounded by high hills or mountains, perhaps 2,500 or 3,000 feet above the trail, 
and the sides are very precipitous. The botton of the ravine is filled with a thick accumulation 
‘These have been examined and reported on by Mr Conrad. See Appendix, Article II, and Chap. XIII. 
