252 REPORT OF THE CALIFORNIA EARTHQUAKE COMMISSION. 
Calera Valley. — In Calera Valley the shock was severely felt by people in some small 
temporary shacks. South of this place, in the San Pedro Valley, two old wooden houses 
showed no structural damage, and only one of two brick chimneys was thrown down. 
San Pedro Point. — From San Pedro Point southward for about 1.5 miles, the cliffs 
rise to heights of from 400 to 800 feet. The railway company had cut a bench for its 
roadbed several hundred feet above the ocean. This roadbed, being largely in solid 
rock, was for the most part not much injured; but in some places it was obliterated by 
rock slides that came from above. 
Just north of the point known as Devil’s Slide, there was a landslide of the whole face 
of the west end of Montara Mountain. It started at about 800 feet above the sea, and 
swept down carrying many hundred feet of roadbed along with it. The material that 
slid was sandstone and granite, but it seemed to be much weathered and softened in 
places, so that it was loose ground. 
South from the Devil’s Slide to the first small coast valley, there were landslides along 
the cliffs. The rock in this vicinity is massive granite, but the landslides showed that 
the rock had disintegrated for a considerable distance below the surface and the slides 
were in this decomposed rock. Wherever the railway bed was filled or built out with 
this material, there was more or less sliding and settling, caused by the earthquake. 
Montara Point. — The old, low brick structure at Montara Point did not show any 
effects of the shock, but there was some damage to a wooden tank-house. One of the 
tanks, which was previously known to be old and rotten, collapsed entirely. In the yard 
of the keeper is a concrete water cistern which holds over 6,000 gallons, and which is set 
flush with the ground and protected with an iron cover that two men can hardly lift. At 
the time of the shock this tank was almost full and had the cover on. The violence of 
the shock was sufficient to throw this cover 10 or 15 feet, and spill about 3,000 gallons 
of the water in all directions. 
The observations of the light-house keeper are considerably at variance with what 
some people have said regarding the behavior of the ocean at the time of the earthquake. 
Many persons told of waves that had rolled high up on the cliffs. The keeper reports 
that during the actual period of shaking the ocean was smooth, without even the custom- 
ary motion. After the shock had ceased, it was perhaps half a minute before the calm 
was broken and the regular swell began. He reports that he was upon his feet at the 
time of the shock, and altho used to being on shipboard, could stand only with great 
difficulty. 
This testimony as to the appearance of the water is almost the same as that of the 
light-house keeper at San Mateo Point. There was no evidence anywhere along the coast 
to show that the water rose above tide-level. 
On the southwest face of Montara Mountain, nearly all of which is visible from the 
road, no landslides of any size were observed. 
Landslides. — South of Montara Point, in the low foot-hills north of Half Moon Bay, 
there were two large low-angle landslides or earth-flows. One of these landslides was on 
the low foot-hills facing the ocean; the other on the northeast bank of Frenchman’s 
Creek, several miles northeast of Half Moon Bay.* 
From Half Moon Bay to San Mateo, there were several large slides of different character 
from those already mentioned. These resulted from the slipping of large masses of 
rock, many of the fragments in one of the slides being over 20 feet in diameter. (See 
plates 124c and 126s.) 
On the south face of Scarper Peak, and on the southwest face of Ox Hill, there were 
several landslides both large and small. No photographs of the larger slides are available. 
About 4 miles east of Half Moon Bay, just off the south edge of the San Mateo sheet, 
there was another large earth-slide similar to the two already mentioned. 

* These are described by Mr. R. Anderson in the section dealing with Earth-flows. 
