48 
GEOLOGY. 
received from the strata of a recent marine formation, and not necessarily from the evaporation 
of a larger body of salt water left hy a retiring ocean. 
I found that the salt of this little lake was exceedingly hitter and nauseous ; probably owing 
to the presence of a large proportion of chloride of magnesium. Plants, similar to those that 
flourish luxuriantly on the seashore, were growing around the margin of the lake-bed. A speci¬ 
men of the plant most abundant at the border of the salt is, according to Dr. Torrey, Shoberia 
calceoliformis , of the natural order of Chenopodiacece. I also obtained a species of Salicornia, 
apparently S. fructiosa. 
Although the lake is small and insignificant, compared with the salt lakes of the Great Basin, 
it is a good illustration of the formation of beds of salt. 
Granite and Volcanic rock. —I followed the trail around the margin of this field of salt, and left 
the valley of the pass and the main party. The trail led for some distance between a high hill 
and the salt, and then followed a long, narrow valley between the hills, among groves of oak. 
The path was very dusty, and apparently much travelled, but the mule was very unwilling to 
keep it. I soon found it to be a bear trail , and full of recent tracks of great size. After pressing 
forward with caution for about half a mile, the mule suddenly stopped, and I discovered a 
gigantic grizzly bear, with three cubs, slowly mounting the hill on the left, and about one 
hundred yards distant. Seeing me stop, she halted, and, partly turning, uttered a low growl, 
which I did not wait to hear repeated, but gained the top of the hill on the other side as quickly 
as possible. 
On regaining the trail which leads over the summit, through a slight depression, a large 
wooden cross was found planted in the ground on the summit, at the right. From this point 
there was a fine view of the eastern end of the valley of the Canada, nearly to its opening out 
upon the broad region of the Great Basin. No outcrops of rock could be found at the summit 
of these hills ; the surface everywhere was rounded, and the soil was sandy. On descending, 
however, on the opposite side towards the valley, outcrops of white and fine-grained granite were 
found. A fine spring was found half-way down the hill, and at the point where the trail enters 
the valley there are two or three small ponds of water partly surrounded by reeds. A number 
of ducks were found here. Granite outcrops were found for two or three hundred yards, and it 
then gave place to a hard, reddish volcanic rock, apparently a dyke. Sandstone in inclined beds 
was seen beyond, the trend being nearly east and west, and the dip northwards about forty 
degrees. 
At this point of the pass, and eastward towards the Great Basin, the country opens into a 
succession of low hills, with rounded outlines, characteristic of the sandstone and drift forma¬ 
tion. The last is well developed on the right or south side of the valley, near the Los Angeles 
trail, where numerous vertical exposures of the strata are produced by the wearing action of 
small streams descending from the surrounding granitic heights. These hills of horizontal sedi¬ 
ment are composed of water-worn masses of the adjoining granite and limestone, and the sub¬ 
jacent rocks. They present some peculiarities of stratification that indicate an origin more recent 
than the sandstone of the Tulare slope of the Sierra. Several miles beyond, and near to the Great 
Basin, several outcrops of sandstone, with inclinations at various angles, were found. At one 
place the sandstone was coarse, very hard, and associated with a bed of conglomerate. The 
trend was nearly east and west, and the strata on edge. The hills on the left or north side be¬ 
come lower, while those on the right side of the valley retain their elevation, and appear to be 
