CHAPTER XIV. 
ESTRELLA RIVER, PANZA, AND CARRIZO. 
Source and course of the san juan river.—Carrizo creek.—Panza valley.—Flattening out of the san jose granite to the 
WEST, AND ELEVATION OF PANZA AND CARRIZO SANDSTONES.—STRUCTURE OF PANZA HILLS.-PROXIMITY TO TULARE VALLEY—EXTENSION 
OF THE GAVILAN RANGE SEPARATING THEM.—EFFECT OF PROXIMITY OF THE SAN JOSE AND GAVILAN.—E3TERO PLAIN FORMED BY 
THEIR DIVERGENCE.—RESEMBLANCE OF ESTERO PLAIN TO TULARE VALLEY.—STREAMS WHICH SUPPLY THE PLAIN.-LlTTLE KNOWN OF 
ITS GEOLOGY.-THE EASTERN SLOPE OF THE SAN JOSE ASSISTS IN FORMING PANZA AND CARRIZO, AND HAS THE SAME STRATIGRAPHICAL 
relations.—Inferior rock of panza similar to the brown sandstones of santa Barbara.—Gypseous sandstones.—Ostrea 
AND PECTEN LAYERS.-UPPER BEDS ARENACEOUS, WITH ARCA.-SLOPE OF THE STRATA.—TOTAL THICKNESS.—TERRACES ALONG THE 
VALLEY.—FoSSILIFEROUS STRATA BENEATH.—COMPARISON OF THE STRATA AT PANZA WITH THOSE OF SANTA MARGARITA AND SANTA 
Barbara.—Tabular list of the strata.—Enumeration of the fauna of that period. 
The San Jose mountains separate the Salinas and Santa Maria valleys from those lying fur¬ 
ther east. When this range is crossed east of Santa Margarita, or of Cuyama, a valley country 
is entered whose elevation is considerably above that of those on the west; hut the nature of 
the valleys north and south are very different in character. At the point where the San Jose 
chain crosses the Salinas to pass south, the San Juan or Estrella river enters the Salinas. This, 
which is hardly a tributary, since it is much longer than the upper Salinas, takes its rise forty 
miles further southeast in a series of high valleys on the eastern base of the San Jose moun¬ 
tains. The stream, there small, receives the name of Carrizo creek, where its elevation is more 
than 1,600 feet above the sea ; as it passes south, it leaves the open rolling sandstone land and 
enters a narrow valley wonderfully disturbed since its deposition, and denuded during its eleva¬ 
tion. This receives the name of Panza valley from the ranch of that name. South of this it 
receives the name Estrella, and from thence southwards the river retains its place at the base 
of the range until it reaches the Salinas valley and river. 
The region of Carrizo was hut little examined : hut few fossils were found in the upper sand¬ 
stones ; in an upper layer of these, before reaching the valley of Panza, two small shells were 
picked out of the soft sand rock. These were pecten deserti (Conrad ) and anomia subcostata, the 
latter doubtful. The former is a shell found on the western limit of the Colorado desert; it is 
here found 250 miles northwest, and separated by two valleys and three mountain ridges. The 
stratum does not correspond lithologically with that of the desert in which it is found. 
The granitic axis of the San Jose range spreads out westward underneath the strata eleva¬ 
ting the whole plain, and carrying the sandstones to a level several hundred feet above the 
western valleys. Nor does it merely elevate ; it is also itself protruded in several places, not 
in a chain, hut separately, producing the local disturbances and flexions of strata alluded to. 
Panza hills, lesser and greater, are two mountains which display these phenomena well, being 
masses of granitic rock at their southeast end, which have tilted up the strata, and causes them 
to dip toward the San Jose, from which they are not distant further than six miles in an air¬ 
line eastward. Further south the country still rises with rolling hills of sandstone, presenting 
their worn edges to the west and south. The granite appears more constantly as a surface 
rock, and along the head of Carrizo creek gneiss is traced for several miles accompanying the 
