UPPERMOST STRATA OF SANTA INEZ. 
71 
quarried as a source of rough lime. A section of the strata on the south side is given in figure 
2, of plate 3. 
Upon the terrace, near Ortegas ranch, an arroyo cuts its way through to reach the shore, 
disclosing the terrace strata tilted up at a high angle and bent, and the whole swept smooth by 
denudation. This is illustrated in plate 3, figure 3. The intruding mass is a magnesian and 
ferruginous clay, with seams of gypsum and traces of sulphur, probably separated by decompo¬ 
sition from pyrites. This upheave has occurred beside the foraminiferous bed of the asphaltic 
group, or the San Luis beds; this, in its elevation, carried before it the soft, white argillaceous 
beds of San Luis, (stratum 1,) and bent them completely, forming an arch over the intrusive 
substance, beside which is a gray, dark sandstone rock here seen dipping under it. 
Near this ranch, upon the shore, the asphaltic strata again shew themselves ; a thickness of 
about 6 feet is exposed in the edge of the cliff on shore, the beds dipping into and under the sea. 
The lower layers are dark greenish, with an upper layer two feet thick of yellow sandstone. 
The layers are fissured, and the cracks filled in with bitumen ; the latter is washed ashore here 
by the tide in masses from ^ pound to 4 and 6 pounds weight. An examination did not 
discover any deposit of it at this point of the terrace, but there is no doubt that some miles out 
at sea a dislocation of the strata allows the mineral to escape and to he washed ashore. At 
times, as when the wind blows on shore, the whole air is impregnated with the bituminous 
odor, which is thus disseminated for miles over the low lands. The strata, which at this camp 
(24, on the terrace) are covered up almost entirely by the tide, a little further east are exposed, 
and form the low hills which lie immediately west of the town of Santa Barbara; the shore 
line here commencing to deviate near to the south, leaving a larger interval between the base of 
the mountains and the sea. As this distance widens to six miles, the high terrace drops down, 
and in its place are undulating swells of land, 100 to 150 feet, lying along shore, and cutting 
off from the sea a low and fertile valley, very little above the level of high tide, and which is 
in part occasionally overflowed by it. Mr. Hill’s ranch is at this point. Before the last eleva¬ 
tion of the land which raised it above sea level, this was an arm of the sea stretching up to the 
base of the mountains. It is now a fertile valley, and, between grantees and squatters, well 
filled up. 
The asphaltic shales at this point are conformable with the white agillite rock found at the 
cliff edge, Gaviote pass ; as these beds have been fully noticed elsewhere, (see San Luis valley, 
and the chapter on bituminous effusions,) their further consideration may he dispensed with. 
The Santa Inez range sends out a terminating ridge a few miles east of the town of Santa 
Barbara, produced by one of the protrusions of igneous rock, in a southeast direction, throwing 
the upraised strata in opposite directions, making the dip vary from northwest to southeast 
within a few hundred yards. In this part of the chain, the volcanic forces cannot be said to be 
quiescent as yet. On Dr. Robbins’ ranch, which lies near this spur, occasionally fire, smoke, 
and sulphurous vapor has been emitted, from fissures in the rock, in large quantities within a 
few years past. A similar volcanic vent exists at Rincon. 
This point (Rincon) is interesting as being the termination, along shore, of that link of the 
range which lies behind Santa Barbara town, and over Questa San Marcus leads. The axial 
rock is scoriaceous lava, resembling, in some places, furnace clinkers ; in others it is a whitish- 
gray, hard trachytic rock. It is not more than twenty-five feet wide on shore, running into 
the sea to form a prominent headland. The stratum seen in contact with it is a soft, reddish 
sand rock of an ochry tint, then whitish clay rock, then green sand rock with layers of bitumen, 
