70 
STRATA FORMING SANTA INEZ MOUNTAINS. 
at an angle of 40° into tlie sea and form a bulwark of natural masonry against further encroach¬ 
ments. 
This elevated terrace continues the whole way from Point Concepcion to Santa Barbara ; along 
this distance it is cut into here and there by numerous arrovos running down from the moun¬ 
tains ; these cut their channels 15 to 30 feet down through the soft argillaceous and sandstone 
rock, not only exposing their layers, but also disclosing a peculiar feature in the geology of this 
southern coast, namely, that the low terraces and undulating hills close to shore are cut into by 
talcose and magnesian rocks, which have altered, contorted and tilted up the strata until the 
angle is almost vertical, and in some places making them incline the other way, or from the 
shore inland ; this latter direction may be seen wherever the mountain range is more than five 
miles from shore ; then the volcanic reck may be traced running through the mounds along 
shore, making the strata incline toward the mountain range. This is visible near Mr. Hill’s 
ranch, a few miles west of Santa Barbara, and is also remarkable in the Los Angeles valley. 
These elevating forces, though more recent than those which upraised the mountain range, were 
still antecedent to the elevation of the whole land above the water level, inasmuch as the smooth 
and denuded surface of the upper edges of the strata which form the floor of the terrace indicate 
the long continued action of the sea flowing over it. 
To return to the sections of strata of the sierra on the shore side of the range, commencing at 
the water’s edge, and passing along the terrace up the pass into the valley of Santa Inez, the 
following was the superposition of the beds : 
1. Whitish yellow argillaceous beds, alternating with thin arenaceous slates ; dip from 30° 
to 60° S.E., intruded upon by magnesian rock. This is the same rock as that described as 
occurring on Santa Inez river, and on the road to Purissima; also, similar to those on the 
terraces of the Santa Maria river, in Cuyama. 
2. Beds of sandstone—grits fine and coarse—brownish in color, weathering irregularly, and 
containing ostrea in layers; the stratum containing this bed is 10 feet thick. Then follows 
greenish brown sand rock, containing impressions of fuci, broken and imperfect—a soft stone, 
readily crumbling. 
3. Brown sand rock, fine grit; containing a bed of fine grit with Ostrea Panzana, 10 feet 
thick, accompanied by Natica Inezana. This bed contains some hard flagging layers lying 
above the ostrea stratum ; thickness, 150 feet. 
4. Greenish sand rock, with calcareous layers, containing pecten, ostrea , turritella, and pachy- 
desma. This bed forms one of the loftiest in the pass. 
5. Brown sand rock and greenish conglomerate—very similar to bed 2, on the north side; 
thickness, 200 feet. 
In continuing up the pass beds 2, 3, and 4 were met; the repetitions of these strata on the 2d 
ridge. These terminate near the river, in the valley Santa Inez. It is difficult to estimate 
exactly the total thickness of the strata, inasmuch as those hidden beneath the terrace, whose 
position is beneath 1 and 2, extending three-fourths of a mile from the sea to the mountain base, 
may be but repetitions of similar strata contorted by the magnesian rocks. The thickness of 
the strata in the pass is about 950 feet, and above 200 feet more lies further down outside ; so 
that, allowing 150 feet for bed 1, the total thickness of the group cannot be less than 1,500 feet. 
At the camp situated 5 miles N.W. of Santa Barbara, among the foot hills of the range, the 
strata containing pecten meekii, with veins of calcite, were found lying behind camp, and were 
