BERNARDINO SIERRA-PASSES AND AVERAGE ELEVATION. 
137 
order of succession of the passes from the Canada de las Uvas eastward to San Bernardino, 
together with their elevation above the sea, as determined by the survey, is as follows : 
Cajon, de Tenoco_4,256. 
San Francisquito___..._.....___...... 3,445. 
Williamson’s (New Pass)_ 3,164. 
Cajon_..._ 4,676. 
These are mentioned in the order of their succession from west to east, and all of them lead from 
the Great Basin to the coast slope, the Cajon.de Tenoco leading southward from the summit of 
the Canada de las Uvas. The elevations of the summits are hut little above the margin of the 
Basin slope, and the line of water-shed is nearly coincident with it. This is strikingly ex¬ 
hibited at the Cajon Pass, where the summit is formed of the unconsolidated materials of the 
Basin slope. West of the Canada de las Uvas, or the Cajon de Tenoco, the chain has been but 
little explored. The mountains hack of Santa Barbara are high and rugged. A break further 
west, called the Gaviota Pass, is said to he only 600 feet above the sea. 1 
The most elevated point in the chain is the peak of San Bernardino, in longitude 116° 45'. 
Its elevation is variously estimated at from 7,000 to 9,000 feet, hut is probably not over 8,500. 
The summit is bald and rounded, and probably composed of granite. It has a grey color, and 
is covered with snow for the greater part of the year. This mountain is a noted landmark, and 
has been used as an initial point hy the United States land survey. Other high ridges in the 
vicinity of the Cajon are probably not over 2,000 or 2,500 feet higher than the summit of the 
pass, and thus about 7,000 feet in elevation. The average elevation of the chain is probably 
about 6,000 feet. 
Tbe altitude of this chain, as well as its geological structure, indicates that it should he 
regarded as the southern prolongation of the great chain of the Sierra Nevada, rather than of 
tbe Coast Mountains. It is entirely different from the latter, topographically, in its direction, 
and in its geological structure. The Coast Mountains find their equivalents in the minor ranges 
nearer the coast—the San Fernando range and others, composed of uplifted Tertiary strata and 
of intrusive rocks or dykes. 
Subordinate parts of the Bernardino Sierra are known under local names, as, for example: 
Qui-quai-mungo range, San Gabriel range, San Fernando range, and Santa Inez range. The 
whole chain, or a portion of it, was formerly called Sierra Madre hy the Padres—probably from 
the fact that the Sierra Nevada, the Coast Mountains, and other ranges seem to spring from it. 
The name, however, appears to have been applied in the most general manner, and has not 
passed into use ; as, also, it is now applied to the principal range extending from the table¬ 
land of Mexico, or Anahuac, into the territories of the United States, it is not desirable to retain 
it for the chain which has been described. The name Bernardino Sierra? is therefore proposed, 
PENINSULA SIERBA. 
A great change in the direction of the mountains is found at the eastern extremity of the Ber¬ 
nardino Sierra. From the general east and west direction, the trend becomes nearly north and 
south, so that a nearly rectangular intersection of the chains is formed. The ranges of the Ber- 
1 On tlae authority of Professor James Nooney, of California, from barometrical observations made in 1849. 
2 The Spanish word Sierra, applied to mountains, denotes a range or chain with a serrated outline like the teeth of a saw ; 
or, as commonly used, a chain of mountains or pointed summits. As the word has become Anglicized in New Mexico ana 
California, where it is in constant use, I adopt it as the equivalent of the expression, chain of mountains. 
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