250 REPORT OF THE CALIFORNIA EARTHQUAKE COMMISSION. 
the cemetery, carried away a pile of lumber, and knocked the power-house from its 
foundations. The front of the mud-flow piled up in a bank when it reached the nearly 
level ground, and dammed up the mass behind it. The earth was harder several weeks 
later than it must have been at the time of the flow, but it was still slushy and there was 
still a little water flowing along the path of the earth-flow, coming from a small spring 
where the slide originated. 
On the west bank of a creek, near and parallel to the line of the railroad southwest of 
Holy Cross Cemetery, there was a crack several hundred feet long. This was along 
the bank near the creek bed and was an incipient landslide. 
On the east edge of the hills west of the Chinese Cemetery and 9-mile house, a line of 
cracks extends for a distance of about 1,000 yards. These cracks are more than a foot 
wide in places, and there is an apparent downthrow on the northeast; in one place there 
is a long line of crusht earth, such as occurs along the main fault-line. Inspection showed 
that these cracks were caused by a slight landslide. The line of crumbled earth was due 
to the earth above it on the hillside sliding slightly, and the crumbling represented a line 
of buckling of the crust. 
These cracks are upon the top of a hill, at an elevation of about 400 feet; their general 
direction is about N. 40° W., and parallel to the San Andreas fault, and the line of hills 
here has the same general trend. 
A line along the east edge of the hills, then, would naturally have the same trend as 
that of the main fault. A continuation of these cracks would go to the ocean thru 
Wood’s Gulch, which is along the line of a small fault; but no evidence could be found 
showing any visible movement at the time of the late earthquake. There were several 
large landslides on both the southwest and northeast sides of the gulch, and at the ocean 
the amount of dirt that had fallen was very large. These things show a high earthquake 
intensity, but there is no evidence of other movement. 
The coast north of Mussel Rock. — Along the coast from Mussel Rock to Lake Merced 
the section known as Seven Mile Beach presented steep cliffs from 1 to 700 feet in height. 
These cliffs are composed of the beds of the Merced series, which are soft clay and sand- 
stones only partially consolidated. Along the face of these cliffs the Ocean Shore Rail- 
way had started a grade at an elevation of about 300 feet above tide level. Along this 
bluff a large amount of earth slid down the slopes at the time of the shock. This caving 
of the banks was due to the nature of the soil, the proximity to the fault-zone, and the 
disturbance of natural slopes due to the railroad terrace near the top. 
In places this slope toward the ocean was brought about to the angle of the repose of 
this material and the roadbed was entirely destroyed for a distance of 3 miles. 
On April 25, the writer was on the edge of the cliffs near Wood’s Gulch. About 3 p.m. 
of that day there was a shock with an intensity estimated to be between VI and VII. 
At that time the cliffs shook like so much gelatine, and it was necessary to hold on to 
prevent falling. On the north side of the canyon, hundreds of tons of earth fell even 
with this light shock. 
Along the top of the cliffs large cracks were formed to a distance of several hundred 
feet from the edge. Many of these cracks were a foot or even as much as 3 feet in width, 
and small scarps were often present, 4 or 5 feet high and 20 or 30 yards long. The gen- 
eral tendency was for everything to slide into the ocean, but this was not always true. 
Miniature scarps of more than 6 feet were seen with a downthrow upon the northeast 
or inland side. The Merced beds, as a whole, were badly shaken, and broke up all along 
the coast section. Near Mussel Rock part of the roadbed slid for about 500 feet and on 
the hillside above the road there was a long crack which was the beginning of a slide that 
might have taken a large part of the hill. The direction of this crack was about N.45° W 
which is more toward the north than the fault-line at this particular place. H 
