DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOB

BULLETIN

OK THE

UNITED STATES

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

2STo. 196

I , GEOGRAPHY, 31

WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1902

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

CHARLES D. WALCOTT, DIRECTOR

TOPOGRAPHIC DEVELOPMENT

OF THE

KLAMATH MOUNTAINS

BY

JOSEPH S. DILLER

WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

1902

CONTENTS.

Page.

Introduction.__..__._.__._.__...._.____....__.._.._...--_.._._._._.....-.-- 9

The Klamath Mountains......... .-........--.-.....----.-.---...-------. 9

Brief summary of events. ................................................. 11

The Klamath peneplain .................,..-...-.,.....-_--.-..-.--------- 15

Remnants of the Klamath peneplain -.-.---....--.-....---..---.----- 15

The Bellspring peneplain. .....- .--.....'...--..-........-.--..-.---.--.-. 18

Remnants of the Bellspring peneplain............ ................ '.... 19

The Sherwood peneplain ......................--.....-..--.-....'---.-.--. 22

Profile across Coast Range and Klamath Mountains near fortieth parallel.. 23

Elevated beaches along seaward border of Klamath peneplain............. 24

The coastal plain .............................. ...................... 24

North of Rogue River in Oregon..................................... 26

Rogue River to Crescent City, CaL.-------- ........................^. 27

South of Crescent City, Gal................................I......... 28

Marine deposits bordering Klamath peneplain ............................ 30

At Cape Blanco, Oregon..............------.......-..--......---.---- 30

Near Crescent City, Cal ..............t............................... 31

On Mad River....................................... ............... 35

On Eel River Ferndaleand Rio Dell.................................. 36

Near Round Valley .....-...........-.-..-.-....---------...--------- 41

Fluvio-estuarine deposits of Trinity drainage.........-.-.-....-...-..-... 41

At Hyampom.-.-......----..-.......-...-.---..---.---.-.-.--..----- 41

At Hay Fork................ ....................................... 43

Redding Creek and Weaverville region..................---..--.--.-. 44

Origin of Klamath and Bellspring peneplains...........-...-....:--..-... 45

Age of Klamath peneplain ....-...-......-.-...-...-....--...-.:.-----.-- 47

Dislocation of Miocene deposits of Coast Range and subsequent planation.. 47

Orogenic movement initiating Sherwood stage.--....-------...-.....----- 48

Orogenic movement initiating Garberville stage .........,....-.---.-..-.. 49

Earlier valleys..-.--.-....._--.----..-..-------.---..--.---.----.---.---- 49

Earlier valley of Umpqua River...................................... 50

Earlier valleys of Coos and Coquille rivers.......----.-.--..-.--..---- 50

Earlier valleys of Sixes and Elk rivers ................................ 51

Earlier valley of Rogue River........................................ 51

Earlier valley of Klamath River...................................... 52

Earlier valleys of Redwood Creek and Mad River........-....._.....- 54

Earlier valley of Eel River ............-..---......-.---.--..-.-...... 55

Earlier valleys of Russian River and Cache Creek -...........-..--... 56

Earlier valley of Stony Creek ......:.---.--...................-.-.... 56

Subsidence and earlier valley filling .......-...-.....----.-...........--.. 57

Uplift and displacement closing earlier valley stage...--.--..--...-...-... 57

Post-Miocene elevation......--.-..----..--..---..-..-.-..-..---.....-.... 57

Glaciation of later valleys..---.-..-----.-----------.------.--..--.-.----- 58

Subsidence along Oregon coast.-.--.......--........-.....-.-..._---.-... 59

Relation of Klamath peneplain to that of Sierra Nevada and Coast Range.. 60

Relation of topography of Klamath Mountains and Coast Range ---------- 61

Supplement Notes on geological age of some of the rocks of the Klamath

Mountains-....------..---.-.....--.-.---....-..--.---------.---------- 63

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Page.

PLATE I. Map of southern Oregon and northern California, showing the 

Klanaath Mountains in relation to the Coast, Cascade, and 

Sierra Nevada ranges ........................................ 9

II. Sections illustrating stages in the northern Coast Range region 

since Eocene time: A, Klainath stage; B, Bellspring stage; C, 

Sherwood stage; D, Generalized section of coast and river valley, 

illustrating the records of the various stages from the Garberville to the marine-terrace stage, inclusive.................... 10

III. Even crest of Coast Range, Klamath peneplain, as seen from

Roseburg, Oreg...........-...--.-..----.---------.---.--.-.. 12

IV. Klamath peneplain on Iron Mountain, seen from southern end of

Barklow Mountain, Curry County, Oreg ..................... 14

V. A, Klamath peneplain 17 miles west of Waldo, on McGrew road 

(abandoned); B, Klamath peneplain on divide between Colusa 

and Lake counties, Cal., seen from near Vernado .............. 16

VI. Alder Springs (4,269 feet), looking north across Grindstone Creek,

Glenn County, Cal............................................ 18

VII. Klamath peneplain seen from Ocean View (6,700 feet), looking

south ......................................................... 20

VIII. A, Sherwood peneplain, rising westward from Bald Hills, Shasta 

County, Cal.; B, Sherwood peneplain of Bald Hills, Shasta 

County, and Klamath peneplain of Yallo Bally Mountains, 

Tehauia County, Cal ......................................... 22

I.. Fin Rock and Cape Blanco, Oregon............................. 24

X. 'A, Maddens mine, on elevated beach 5 miles east of Cape Blanco; 

B, Rock stack on coastal plain 5 miles south of Chetco River, 

Oregon ...................................................... 26

XI. Plateau front and coastal plain south of Chetco, Curry County,

Oreg......................................................... 28

XII. Wildgrass Ridge, capped by gravel bed of the ancient Klamath

River...................i.................................... 52

XIII. Earlier valley of Redwood Creek above Redwood House.......-- 54

FIG. 1. Diagram illustrating the movements of the Klamath peneplain with

reference to sea level. ---..-.._---..-------.-.----.-............ 14

2. Generalized profile of Coast Range and Klamath Mountains on the

fortieth parallel................................................ 23

3. Profile of marine terraces 12 miles north of Port Orford, Oreg..... 26

4. Section of beach bluff from Cape Blanco to mouth of Elk River.

Curry County, Oreg ...--.--.-..-.......-'-..--.--..----.--..... 31

5. Crescent City section at Battery Point............................ 34

6. Pebble Beach section 2 miles north of Crescent City, Cal ---------- 35

7. Section showing relation of earlier valleys to Klamath peneplain

and later valleys...........-..--.-.----.--............-........ 49

7

U.S.GEOLOGICAL SURVE.Y BULLETIN NO. 196 PLATE I

MAP OF SOUTHERN OREGON <* AND NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

SHOWING THE KLAMATH MOUNTAINS IN RELATION TO THE CASCADE, 

SIERRA NEVADA, AND COAST RANGES

BY.T.S. DILLER

Scale.

40 80
TOPOGRAPHIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE 

KLAMATH MOUNTAINS.

By JOSEPH S. DILLER.

INTRODUCTION.

The observations on which this paper is based were begun in 1889 

during a trip across the Coast Range from the Sacramento Valley to 

the mouth of Eel River in California, 1 and have been continued since 

then at intervals, throughout the limits of the Klamath Mountains, 

from the fortieth parallel in California to the Coquille River in Oregon. In the summer of 1900 several months were spent along the 

coast from Port Orford in Oregon to Clear Lake in California, and 

thence northward by way of Stony Creek on the eastern slope of 

the Coast Range to Bully Choop. Since then a trip has been made, 

chiefly on horseback, from San Francisco northward through the Coast 

Range, Klamath Mountains, and Cascade Range by way of Round 

Valley, Eel River, and the valley of the Klamath, with numerous 

side excursions from the general route.

The topographic development of the coastal region of California 

from San Francisco to Humboldt Bay has been graphically described 

in an excellent paper by Prof. A. C. Lawson, 2 whose general conclusions are in many respects essentially the same as those of this paper, 

which gives them a wider and more detailed application. 

THE KLAMATH MOUNTAINS.*

The Klamath Mountains (PI. I), although a portion of the Coast 

Range lying between the fortieth and forty-third parallels of California and Oregon, are most conveniently treated as if independent. 

They are composed largely of sedimentary and igneous rocks similar 

to those of the Sierra Nevada, but contain also some of Cretaceous 

age. At the north they are easily separated from the Coast Range 

of Oregon, which begins among the Rogue River Mountains and is 

made up chiefly of Eocene sediments.

1 Fourteenth Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. Survey, Part II, 1894, p. 408.

2 The geomorphogeny of the coast of northern California: Bull. Dept. Geol., Univ. California, 

Vol. I, pp. 241-272.

9
10 TOPOGBAPHIC DEVELOPMENT OF KLAMATH MOUNTAINS. [uuLL.196.

At the south the Klamath Mountains can not be distinguished 

from the Coast Range of California on the same basis, for the Eocene 

does not occur in the northern part of that State. Other formations, 

however, taken in connection with the drainage, afford a convenient 

means of distinction, and the South Fork of Trinity River may be considered as marking approximately their boundary. In the Klamath 

Mountains the drainage is transverse and irregular, owing in large 

measure to diversity of structure and composition, but in the adjacent 

portion of the Coast Range in California, which is made up almost 

wholly of crushed sandstones and shales, with subordinate masses 

of igneous rocks and glaucophane-schist, it is in general parallel to 

the strike of the rocks.

There is thus developed a remarkable parallelism of the principal 

streams, not only to one another, but to the general trend of the 

coast (about N. 27° W.) from San Francisco to Cape Mendocino. 

The easternmost stream of the group is the South Fork of Trinity 

River from its head to the mouth of the Klamath. On the west 

lie the Mattole and the South Fork of Eel River, which, although 

they are within a score of miles of the coast, follow it for nearly 

60 miles before reaching the ocean. Eel River is the most important stream of the group, and to the east lie Mad River and Redwood Creek. Upon the headwaters of "the former, Eel River has 

been encroaching and has already made important captures. The 

whole of the region bordering the Klamath Mountains on the southwest may be most conveniently referred to as the northern end of 

the Coast Range. The same peculiar drainage direction (NW.-SE.) 

may be seen in the head of Thomas and Grindstone creeks, which 

flow into the Sacramento and mark the Yallo Bally peaks as the 

southern terminus of the Klamath Mountains near the fortieth parallel. The Cascade Range of Oregon and northern California is built 

up largely of igneous products along a line of great volcanoes, the 

last of which to the southward is Lassen Peak, occupying a depression at the northeast corner of the Sacramento Valley between the 

Sierra Nevada and the Klamath Mountains, whose outlines are indicated on the accompanying map (PL I) 1 .

The Klamath Mountains embrace a large number of ridges and 

peaks having special names. The most important of these are the 

Siskiyou (Preston Peak, 9,000+ feet), Salmon (Thompson Peak, 9,345 

feet), Scott (Mount Eddy, 9,151 feet), Bully Choop (7,073 feet), and 

Yallo Bally (8,604 feet) along the crest of the range. They are all 

more or less conspicuous peaks rising above the general plateau of 

the group.

1 There being some confusion in the use of names of mountains southwest of Mount Shasta, 

letters of inquiry concerning common usage were addressed to the thirty-six postmasters of the 

region, and the names Salmon, Scott, and Trinity are placed on the map in accordance with 

the majority of the replies. Concerning the Trinity Mountains the opinion was unanimous.
-.U.,8,;G|^BOj3ICAL SURVEY BULLETIN NO. 196 PL. II

M/'ocene 

secttmenfsCoast Range region

Pacific Ocean

Klamath Mt. region 

/ Jf/amath peneplain______ __

'zi^rx'j^-T-^-' ^'5??^ ixo."^,"~7-^'-|V^ ~'~-(''' ^^i^^f?'^?\s^'m^P^.s\^'^'>~^-^-~^~^^i^\-{\

,, .,. ,, Bel'/spring peneplain Pacific Ocean 3 ^ ^

peneplain

Sherwood peneplain /T7<s/77c7 fh penep la in

(C)

SECTIONS ILLUSTRATING STAGES IN THE NORTHERN COAST RANGE REGION SINCE EOCENE TIME.

A, Klamath stage ; B, Bellsprmg stage ; C, Sherwood stage; D, generalized section of coast and river valley, illustrating the records of the various stages from the Garberville

to the marine-terrace stage, inclusive. 

The numbers indicate the features developed during the stages described on pp. 11 14.
DTLLER.] STAGE8 OF DEVELOPMENT. 11 

BRIEF SUMMARY OF EVENTS.

The topographic development of the Klamath Mountains involved 

a long and complicated series of changes, which it is the purpose of 

this paper to set forth. To facilitate the presentation and discussion 

of the facts it seems desirable to give first a brief historical outline, 

enumerating the events in their sequence and designating the more 

important of the special features as they develop.

Some of the general topographic features of the Klamath Mountains had their beginnings at least as far back as the early Mesozoic, 

but it is not the writer's purpose to go into the past beyond the close 

of the Eocene, from which time to the present the sequence of events 

appears to have been as follows:

1. Klamatli stage. The Eocene closed in the Klamath Mountain 

region with an uplift initiating a long cycle of erosion, which reduced 

the Miocene land surface to very gentle relief, practically to a peneplain, the Klamath peneplain. (See PI. II, A.)

While the Klamath peneplain was developing, approximately the 

whole of the adjacent northern end of the Coast Range region of California southwest of the drainage of Trinity River and its tributaries 

was covered by the sea (see shore line at close of Klamatli peneplain 

stage, PL I) and received a correlative deposit of Miocene sediments.

2. Post-Klamath faulting. Toward the close of the Miocene the 

sediments which had been laid down during the Klamath stage were 

displaced and tilted by a series of faults, and raised a little above sea 

level. The adjacent portion of the Klamath Mountain region, embracing the Klamath peneplain already developed, was at that time but 

little disturbed either by the faulting or by the uplifting, so that the 

Klamatli peneplain, although slightly broken, remained evident.

#. Bellspring stage. After the close of the disturbance just noted 

the land remained still for a considerable time, allowing the low hills 

of soft Miocene beds along the coast to be reduced nearly to sea level, 

thus developing by subaerial processes a peneplain over the region of 

the northern end of the Coast Range. This peneplain is practically 

continuous with the peneplain of the adjacent Klamath Mountain 

district. To distinguish it from the Klamath peneplain it may be 

designated the Bellspring peneplain, after a locality where this feature is well preserved. (See PI. II, J5.)

4- Post-Bellspring uplift. With the completion of the Bellspring 

peneplain in its extension over the northern portion of the Coast 

Range, there came an uplift which affected the whole coast of northern 

California and Oregon. The uplift was differential, being about 500 

feet along the coast and an increasingly greater amount toward the 

crest of the Klamath Mountains.

5. Sherwood stage. The uplift just noted was succeeded by a long 

halt, during which the land stood still and allowed the cycle of ero-
12 TOPOGRAPHIC DEVELOPMENT OF KLAMATH MOUNTAINS. [BULL. 190,

sion to advance to tlie development of a peneplain over wide stretches 

of soft rocks locally along tlie coast. This peneplain has its greatest 

extent about the South Fork of Eel River and Sherwood, and may be 

called the Sherwood peneplain, to distinguish it from the Bellspring 

peneplain, which lies 500 feet higher. (See PL II, C.)

Along the Oregon coast, where the more ancient and durable rocks 

of the Klamath Mountains form much of the shore, the development 

of the Sherwood peneplain was not marked, but from the Chetco 

River south, where softer beds of Miocene age form much of the 

land, the Sherwood peneplain attained a wide area.

Extending inland from the level of the Sherwood peneplain alongRogue River and the Klamath and Eel rivers are broad valleys of 

Sherwood stage high above the present beds of these streams, and 

wherever soft beds occur, as at Round Valley, the valley of Sherwood 

stage widens to a local Sherwood peneplain.

6. Post-Slierwood uplift. At the close of the Sherwood stage the 

whole region of the Klamath Mountains and adjacent Coast Range 

experienced a differential uplift. Along the coast the uplift was 

about 500 feet. The amount increased toward the crest of the Klamath Mountains and greatly invigorated the streams, initiating a new 

cycle of erosion.

7. Garberville stage. At the close of the uplift just noted began 

the Garberville stage (illustrated, with succeeding stages, in PI. II, D). 

The Bellspring peneplain nearest the coast then stood at an elevation 

of 1,000 feet, and the Sherwood peneplain at 500 feet. The Garberville stage was not so long as the Sherwood, and yet it was long enough 

to permit the rivers where the rocks were relatively soft to carve out 

broad valleys of gentle slope in the yet earlier valleys of the Sherwood stage. The two series of valleys, of the Sherwood and Garberville stages, are rarely sharply distinguishable. Perhaps the valley 

.best illustrating the Garberville stage is that of the South Fork of Eel 

River, where it cuts across the Sherwood peneplain in the vicinity of 

Garberville. 1 The valleys of both stages were broad and often in 

marked contrast with the narrow valleys of later date.

8. Post-Garberville subsidence. The Garberville stage was brought 

to a close by a subsidence, the depth of which, although small, 

increased to the eastward, not only ponding the streams but admitting the tide in the southern branches of the Trinity as far as Hay 

Fork, within a few miles of the present crest of the Klamath Mountains.

9. Hay Fork stage. In the water bodies thus formed nuvio-estuarine 

sediments were deposited during the Hay Fork stage, filling the old 

valleys. Among the sediments of this stage shales have been found 

containing sharks' teeth and Miocene leaves. Volcanic dust and 

pumice play an important role in this old valley filling, and traces of 

coal are of common occurrence.

1 The town of Garberville is on the river in a narrow valley far below the earlier valley of the 

Garberville stage.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

EVEN CREST OF COAST RANGE, KLAMATH PENEPLAIN, AS SEE
STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT. 13

10. Post-Hay Fork uplift,. Succeeding the Hay Fork stage came an 

uplift affecting the whole coast. In northern California the uplift 

was in the neighborhood of 1,500 feet, raising the land at least 600 

feet above the present level, and forcing the coast westward to the 

border of the continent adjoining the deep sea. During this upward 

movement there was considerable displacement, for the fine sediments 

of the Hay Fork stage are in places somewhat tilted.

11. Continental border stage. High altitude and rapid erosion prevailed during the continental border stage. The revived rivers swept 

away much of the unconsolidated material which had filled the old 

valleys and cut canyons generally in them, but in some cases the 

streams Avere wholly diverted from the old channels and cut new ones.

Much of the Miocene deposits along the coast was removed during 

this stage, and valleys were cut across the continental border, which 

is now submarine, to the sea beyond. 1 The date of this erosion is 

indicated as occurring between the Miocene (Empire epoch) and late 

Pliocene (Battery Point epoch) by an unconformity at Battery Point 

near Crescent City. The intensity of the erosion during the continental border stage must have been greatest near the sea. Its most 

pronounced effects on the continental border, now submarine, must be 

largely obscured by later deposits along the coast.

12. Post-continental border subsidence. A subsidence of probably 

700 feet submerged the continental border and carried the land somewhat below its present level, where it remained stationary for a while.

IS. Battery Point stage. The fossiliferous Pliocene San Diego beds 

of Battery Point, near Crescent City, were deposited during this stage 

in shallow water unconf ormably upon a post-Miocene surface of erosion. The stage was probably a short one and was brought to a close 

by further subsidence.

14. Post-Battery Point subsidence. After the deposition of the 

Battery Point beds, perhaps with some oscillation, a general downward movement of about 1,500 feet ensued all along the coast of 

northern California and southern Oregon, submerging the coast to 

approximately the level of the Sherwood peneplain. This submergence must have had a profound effect upon the land drainage, and 

filled many of the narrow valleys to great depths; but although the 

exact extent of the subsidence is not known, as the coast was mountainous, the sea did not advance far inland before the end was reached 

and the return swing began, which is recorded in the elevated beaches 

of the following stage.

15. Marine-terrace uplift stage. The marine-terrace stage opened 

apparently with the Sherwood peneplain near sea level, and from 

that position the land has risen to its present altitude, not by one

papers recently published, one by W. S. Tangier Smith in Science, the other by O. H. 

Hershey in the Jovirnal of Geology, should be referred to in this paper, but they are not available while proof is in hand, in the field, and can only be mentioned in this place.
14 TOPOGKAPHIC DEVELOPMENT OF KLAMATH MOUNTAINS. [Buui.196.

single uplift, but by a number, separated by halts which were in some 

cases sufficiently long to allow the waves to develop prominent beaches, 

with sea cliffs and marine terraces, all of which are capped more or 

less completely by Pleistocene marine sediments. The first or oldest 

of -this series of marine terraces must now be highest on the slope up 

from the sea, while the newer ones range successively downward to the 

present beach. The terraces are numerous and occur at many levels. 

The highest one yet found is 1,500 feet above sea level, and marks 

approximately the point at which subsidence changed to uplift. The 

two most prominent terraces are about 100 and 1,000 feet above sea 

level.

While the waves were cutting terraces on the coast the rivers were 

cleaning out their filled valleys, or perhaps in some cases cutting new 

canyons around the filling.

16. Coos Bay subsidence. The latest movement on the coast of 

Oregon from Bandon northward has been one of slight subsidence, 

permitting the tide to run up the rivers many miles.

The sequence of events may in a general way be illustrated by the 

diagram, fig. 1, in which the horizontal component represents time 

and the vertical component represents altitude of the land the 

Klamath peneplain in particular with reference to sea level.

EOCENE MIOCENE PLIOCENE PLEISTOCENE

 SBOO feet

 2000 -

 ISOO 

 1000 ' 

 SOO "

Sea level o 

FIG. 1. Diagram illustrating the movements of the Klamath peneplain with reference to sea

level.

Notwithstanding the post-Klamath faulting (2) the land remained 

for a long time (1-3) at approximately the same level, allowing the

development of the Klamath and Bellspring peneplains. The uplift 

(4), followed by a halt (5), resulted in the Sherwood peneplain. Another 

uplift (6) and halt (7) led to the features of the G-arberville stage. 

The long upward movement (1-7) was followed by a slight recoil (8) 

and halt (9), filling the estuarine valleys, before the great uplift (10) 

which forced the sea back to the continental border. A time of high 

altitudes (11) ensued. The end of the swing was reached and subsidence (12) set in, halting (13) for a short interval before the greater 

downward movement (14) which depressed the Klamath peneplain to 

within about 500 feet of sea level. Elevation (15) began again; it 

was marked by many halts, when marine terraces were carved; and 

finally there has been a local sag (16) along the northern coast of 

Oregon.

Owing to the lack of characteristic fossils at important points the 

reference to the geological time, scale in fig. 1 is not fully satisfactory.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

KLAMATH PENEPLAIN ON IRON MOUNTAIN, SEEN FROM SOUTHERN END OF BAR
A MIOCENE PENEPLAIN". 15

« __

If the Wymer beds on the border of the Klamath peneplain should 

turn out to be Pliocene and those of the Hay Fork stage later than 

the Miocene, the Miocene would be largely excluded from the sequence.

THE KLAMATH PENEPLAIN.

The Klamath Mountains are characterized in many places by flattish or gently rounded summits and an approximate accordance in 

the altitudes of even-crested ridges, giving to these highlands the 

aspect of a dissected plateau. The upper portions of the principal 

divides, after attaining a considerable altitude above the sea, have 

in places broad tops on which the relief features are terraces or low, 

rolling hills. Sharp peaks above this level of'gentle relief are found, 

with rare exceptions, only among the highest parts of the range. The 

original more or less irregular plateau surface, of which we now have 

only remnants, for convenience of reference may be for the present 

assumed to be due to a form of planation, and designated the Klamath 

peneplain, although its approach to a plain is in places not clearly 

marked, because (1) the original prominences were not completely 

reduced to the general level, and because (2) it has been so warped 

and broken by differential change of level as to partially obscure its 

original character.

REMNANTS OF THE KLAMATH PENEPLAIN.

In the northern part the Klamath peneplain is well marked in the 

densely forested summit of the Coast Range. Seen from the vicinity 

of Roseburg, Oreg., the range presents an even crest (PL III) rising 

to an altitude of from 2,500 to 3,000 feet. From the summit of this 

bold escarpment, which faces the east, the crest is seen to be the edge 

of a broad plateau whose smooth or gently rolling surface is deeply 

trenched by streams. In the cross canyon of the range its synclinal 

structure of Eocene sediments is well displayed and the flattish summit is clearly a plain of erosion. Extensive general views of this portion of the plateau are difficult to obtain on account of the gentle 

relief of its general surface and the heavy forest covering. One of 

the best views of the east front may be had from Tyee Mountain, 

which has an altitude of 2,655 feet. The plateau has a gentle 

inclination westward. Its western edge, although rising nearly 2,000 

feet above the sea, is much less distinct than its eastern. To the southwest the Klamath peneplain rises gradually nearly to the limit of 

the Eocene sandstone in Eden Ridge and Blue Knob, on Rogue River, 

where it has an altitude of 3,787 feet. The crest of this portion of the 

range may be seen from Barklow Mountain, at the head of the South 

Fork of Sixes River. The uniform character of the arenaceous sediments gives the peneplain considerable uniformity. Going south 

near the coast, before reaching Rogue River, one finds the older and
16 TOPOGRAPHIC DEVELOPMENT OF KLAMATH MOUNTAINS. [BULL. 196.

harder rocks appearing in great variety and giving rise to much 

greater variation in topographic features. On the hard saxonite of 

Iron Mountain, 20 miles southeast of Port Orford, the peneplain rises 

in a low, broad ridge to 4,000 feet (PI. IV), possibly the highest point 

of the range in Oregon north of Rogue River. The peneplain gradually declines toward the coast, where the now highest peaks, Butler 

(2,923 feet) and Avery (2,613 feet), stand out as hills a few hundred 

feet above the Klamath peneplain.

Between Sixes River and Floras Creek the rolling plateau surface is 

well preserved in Edson Butte (2,781 feet), declining gently westward 

to Eightmile Prairie, at an elevation of 2,363 feet.

A flat-topped mountain between Blackberry and Panther creeks 

preserves the plain near Elk River at about 2,500 feet, and just north 

of Rogue River an undulating plain forms the crest of the divide in 

the Prairie Mountains east of Lobster Creek, with an altitude rising 

eastward from 2,200 to 3,000 feet.

South of Rogue River the drainage is more regular to the California 

line, and the divide between Illinois River and the coast, seen from 

Sunset Peak, preserves the Klarnath plain in many ridges and spurs.

A short distance south of Pistol River the plateau front advances 

nearly to the coast and the descent to the shore is steep. For this 

reason the stage road gradually ascends over the terraced border to 

the summit of the plateau near Irma, at an elevation of nearly 2,000 

feet. 'From the bald hills by the road a good view of the plateau 

remnants to the southeast may be seen. The broad dome of Bosley 

Butte, a few miles from the plateau front, is prominent, and rises 

considerably above the general level of the Klamath peneplain.

From. Chetco Ferry, near the coast, Mount Emery is distant about 

9 miles, and is easily reached on horseback. It rises about 500 feet 

above the general level, and from its southwestern slope affords one 

of the finest general views of a peneplain to be found along the coast. 

The display of even-crested ridges, beyond which rise the irregular 

summits of the Siskiyou Mountains, is impressive. The peneplain has 

an inclination westward of 1-g-0 , reaching the sea front just south of 

Chetco River at an elevation of 1,700 feet. Mount Emery is composed 

largely of andesitic rocks and has a flat summit whose elevation is 

nearly 3,000 feet. To the northeast and east are summits of greater elevation, but they appear less regular along the crest line. Their color 

has determined their name, Red Mountains, and suggests that they are 

within the great area of peridotite traversed by Illinois River and 

the head of Pistol River. Farther northeast is a large, flattish tract, 

rising to an altitude of 4,400 feet, with crests near by reaching 5,000 

feet. The peneplain represented by the summit of Mount Emery and 

the flat tracts to the northeast is less regular than the one 500 feet 

below, seen from the slope of Mount Emery. Whether there are 

really two peneplains about Mount Emery, or only one which has been
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEV ULLETIN NO. 196 PL. V

A. KLAMATH PENEPLAIN, 17 MILES WEST OF WALDO, ON McGREW ROAD 

(ABANDONED),

Looking southwest across Middle Fork of Smith River. Elevation 4,000 feet.

i'LiJEPLAIN ON DIVIDE BETWEEN COLUSA AND LAKE COUNTIES, 

CAL. SEEN FROM NEAR VERNADO.
THE KLAMATH PENEPLAIN. 17

faulted, could not be fully determined during the writer's brief stay 

in that region.

The next ascent to the Klamath peneplain was by the old Wymer 

wagon road,, about 7 miles north of Peacock's ford of Smith River. 

At this point the marine deposits laid down upon the seashore when 

the peneplain had reached its greatest development are well preserved 

and locally full of fossils, both marine shells and leaves from the 

adjacent land. The peneplain rises gradually eastward from 2,450 to 

4,000 feet, and was early recognized as affording the easiest course, 

although longest and stoniest, for the construction of a wagon road 

from Crescent City to Illinois River and Grants Pass. The Wymer 

and McGrew roads are both on this plain. The McGrew road crosses 

the plain west of Waldo at a little over 4,000 feet, and affords a fine 

view of the plain as it approaches the Siskiyou Mountains, which rise 

above it in a group of irregular and prominent peaks, among which 

Preston Peak (altitude 9,000+ feet) is the most conspicuous. To the 

southwest the crest of the ridge forming the divide south of the 

Middle Fork of Smith River (PL V, A) shows the plain dipping westward from the Siskiyous, reaching the coast a few miles south of 

Crescent City, where, at an elevation of about 1,300 feet, a fringe of 

the Sherwood peneplain appears and the descent to the seashore is so 

abrupt that the stage road is forced to climb to the summit of the 

plateau.

South of Klamath River another ascent to the plateau was made in 

crossing from Mad River at Korbel to Hoopa Valley on the South 

Fork of Trinity River. The divide between Mad River and Redwood Creek is in the Coast Range, and its flat crest is part of the 

Bellspriug peneplain. It rises in flat-topped Bald Mountain by 

Acorn to 3,000 feet, and affords an extensive view of the country. 

The next divide to the east beyond Redwood Creek belongs to 

the Klamath Mountains. On the wagon road from Berrys to Willow 

Creek this divide has an elevation of nearly 3,600 feet, and at 2,500 

feet on the eastern side affords an excellent view in the direction of 

the light-colored granitic peaks about the head of Salmon River. 

They stand out as distinct prominences upon the Klamath plain, 

which rises in that direction to over G,000 feet.

With Oscar H. Hershey an ascent was made to the summit of Mount 

Courtney, one of the Salmon Mountains a short distance southeast of 

Thompson Peak. It stands near the head of the South Fork of Salmon 

River and rises to an altitude of over 9,000 feet. From this prominent viewpoint the general agreement in altitude of the principal 

ridges is impressive, and although the examination was not sufficient 

to determine satisfactorily the relations of this plain of low relief to 

the Klamath peneplain, the evidence suggests that they are of the 

same age.

Bull. 196 02 2
18 TOPOGRAPHIC DEVELOPMENT OF KLAMATH MOUNTAINS. [BULL. 196.

As one proceeds southward from Eureka the heights of Bear and 

Mail ridges afford extensive views eastward, disclosing the long, even 

crest of South Fork Mountain, which constitutes the divide between 

Mad River and the South Fork of the Trinity. That remarkable crest 

of ancient schists is one of the best-developed portions of the Klamath 

peneplain, and was crossed at two points in 1889, l at an elevation of 

nearly 6,000 feet. Its composition and general features as part of the 

great plain of erosion were then noted.

To obtain a closer view of the South Fork Mountain country an 

ascent was made from Blocksburg to Lassie Peak (5,875 feet), whose 

platform, at an elevation of 5,600 feet, is evidently in an ancient 

plain of very gentle relief. The peak being but little above the 

general level of the plain, the view of that feature is remarkably 

impressive, and it is evident that if the canyons were filled up by 

returning the material carried away by the streams, thus restoring 

the original condition, the surface would be approximately a plain. 

The even crest of South Fork Mountain is broken near the middle by 

a low, rounded knob known as Picket Peak, beyond which the crest 

rises toward the Yallo Bally Mountains, where traces of the plain 

reach 7,000 feet.

THE BELLSPRING PENEPLAIN.

The Mad River divides for long stretches are more regular in their 

crest lines than those of the country to the southwest traversed by 

Eel River and the Mattole, although there are traces of plains and a 

striking correspondence in elevation in many places throughout the 

whole region.

The greater regularity of the peneplain on the Mad River divides 

as compared with the peneplain of the region to the southwest, is 

related to the Miocene shore line at the time the Klamath peneplain 

attained its greatest development. The position of the Miocene shore 

line is indicated, approximately, on PI. I, and near it the Klamath 

peneplain would be expected to show a more advanced degree of 

degradation than farther inland.

The northern end of the Coast Range was beneath the sea during the 

Klamath peneplain stage, and was brought to the surface by the 

faulting and tilting of the Miocene sediments bordering the Klamath 

peneplain.

The consequent degradation in course of time reduced the north 

Coast Range region to a peneplain the Bellspring peneplain, which is 

practically continuous with the Klamath peneplain but the hard rocks 

were not so completely reduced as in the adjacent portion of the Klamath Mountains, where, without essential change of base-level during 

the tilting of the Miocene, the peneplanation continued through both

i Fourteenth Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. Survey, Part H, 1894, p. 408.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

ALDER SPRINGS. 

Looking north across Grindstone Creek, Glenn County, Cal, Elevation 4,269 fe
DILLEB.] THE BELLSPKING PENEPLAIN. 19

stages. Although it is possible to distinguish the Klamath and Bellspring peneplains in places, it is not possible everywhere, especially 

about the southern end of the Klamath Mountains and along the border of the Sacramento Valley, where all remnants will be considered 

together in connection with the Bellspring peneplain.

REMNANTS OF THE BELLSPRING PENEPLAIN.

Bear Ridge has considerable flat tracts at elevations between 2,000 

and 2,500 feet, although Mount Pierce, which is itself flat topped, 

rises to 3,278 feet. In Rainbow Ridge the gentle features bulge up 

to 3,400 feet, but in Kings Peak, farther south toward Shelter Cove, 

the prominences rise to a little over 4,000 feet and thence gradually 

descend with an even crest-line overlooking the coast to a lower and 

extensive plain drained by the South Fork of Eel River.

To the southeast Mail. Ridge rises and appears to become irregular, but when one ascends on the stage road to Bellspring, approximately 4,000 feet, the upland surface is seen to be of gentle relief, 

although it is less regular than that of the divides about Mad River. 

Near the northern end of Red Mountain is a prominent, unsymmetrical hill, with long, gentle, easterly slope and steep in the opposite 

direction, suggesting faulting; but it is possible also that the form is 

determined by the position of the strata. However .this may be, it 

is clear that the gentle-featured surface has been much broken and 

warped.

Laytonville lies in a long valley at the eastern base of Cahto Peak, 

whose flattish summit of sandstones rises to an elevation of 4,251 

feet, affording an excellent general view of that portion of the Coast 

Range. Here "may be seen to advantage not only the somewhat irregular, although, on the whole, gentle features of the upland surface 

(Bellspring peneplain), but also the lower plain (Sherwood peneplain) 

in the valley of the South Fork of Eel River. The lower plain, some 

distance away, lies about 1,400 feet below the gentle upland of Cahto 

Peak, and sweeps about the western and southern base of the mountain to form the divide between Eel River and the coast.

The high hills opposite Ukiah, forming the divide between Russian 

River and Clear Lake, when seen from Calpella, appear to have irregular crests largely covered with grease wood, but when seen from the 

southern side are much more regular in outline and comparable with 

Bartlett Mountain, which forms the even-crested divide between Clear 

Lake and Bartlett Springs. Bartlett Mountain dips SE. 2°, and to the 

northwest is succeeded by Little Horse, Big Horse, and other flattopped mountains, clearly preserving large tracts of the Bellspring 

peneplain. Above the point crossed by the old road to Bartlett Springs 

the ridge has an altitude of 5,000 feet. The crest is comparatively 

smooth, covered with timber, and easily traveled. Good views from 

this plain show that it rises northwestward to the head of Eel River,
20 TOPOGRAPHIC DEVELOPMENT OF KLAMATH MOUNTAINS. [BOLL. 196.

where, in the broad crest of the range, it joins the Klamath plain of 

the western slope. The even-crested divide between Cache Creek on 

the one hand and Stony and Bear creeks on the other carries the Bellspring peneplain eastward into the Sacramento Valley, while to the 

northwest, as seen from the summit of Bartlett Mountain, it rises to 

the flat, snow-covered (October 11, 1900) crest, Snow Mountain, at an 

elevation of about 7,000 feet, forming the line between Lake and 

Colusa counties. PI. VI, reproduced from a photograph by Mr. Burt 

Cole, illustrates the general flatness of the summit region (Klamath 

peneplain) as seen from a distance at a somewhat lower level. To the 

left of this view, beyond the crest of the range, is "Ocean View," at an 

elevation of 6,700 feet, from which the outlook to the south is given 

in PI. VII. Snow Mountain (summit, 7,040 feet) and Mount St. John 

rise a little above the flat portion of the Klamath peneplain.

Beyond Bartlett Springs, 20 miles toward Williams, the stage road 

crosses the Bear Creek divide. A short distance north of the stage 

station, at an elevation of 2,700 feet, it affords an extensive view of 

the peneplain rising northwest to the crest of the range, and to the 

east, northeast, and north the even-crested ridges of the Coast Range 

foothills stretch away for miles, forming the divide between Bear 

Creek and Stony Creek on the west and the broad alluvial plain of 

the Sacramento on the east.

The first crest crossed east of Leesville among the Bear Creek hills 

is 2,250 feet in altitude, and beyond Antelope Valley the front ridge, 

a few miles southeast of Vernado, overlooking the great plain of the 

Sacramento, has an altitude of 2,000 feet. To the southwest from the 

front ridge the view across these Bear Creek hills-and a series of 

even-crested divides shows a remarkable development of the Bellspring peneplain (PI. V, B).

Bally Mountain, a few miles southeast of the stage station, on the 

divide between Cache and Bear creeks, is a mass rising prominently 

above the peneplain about its base, and in places on the mountain 

slopes, as seen from a distance northeast, there appear to be traces 

of planation above the general peneplain, but the ascent of Bally 

Mountain could not be made in order to study the matter.

The Bellspring peneplain ends abruptly on the crest of the foothills 

along the western border of the Sacramento Valley plain in Colusa 

County. The bold front facing east has an altitude of nearly 2,000 

feet, and extends southward more or less continuously through Yolo 

County into Solano County. South of the deep gap cut in this front 

ridge by Putos Creek the crest rises from 2,500 to 2,900 feet.

To the northward from Colusa County this front extends with 

decreasing height into Gienn County, and the Bellspring peneplain is 

finally brought down to the level of the later plain of the Sacramento 

Valley. Although the plateau front sinks northward, the plateau 

surface for some distance west of the front rises in that direction
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

KLAMATH PENEPLAIN SEEN FROM OCEAN VIEW (6,700 FE

The peak in the far center is St. Johns Mountain, Glenn County; Ca! Pho
DILMB.] THE BELLSPRING PENEPLAIN. 21

and attains its greatest height about the head of Stony Creek. Where 

crossed by the road from Leesville to Williams the greatest altitude 

observed among the flat-topped hills was 2,110 feet, but on the road 

from Sites northwest to Stony Ford the Grapevine grade reaches a 

height of 2,700 feet and the crest rises to nearly 3,000 feet. A line 

running a little west of north through. Bear Valley and the valley of 

Stony Creek separates the foothills of Colusa County from the mountains proper. West of this line are large areas of serpentine, but 

the foothills lying eastward are composed wholly, or almost wholly, 

of Cretaceous strata, usually dipping eastward at a high angle. Conglomerates, sandstones, and shales were cut at equal altitudes by the 

same plain, but now the sandstones and conglomerates appear in 

the even crests of the ridges, while the shales are in the intervening 

valleys, of which Antelope, Bear Creek, and Stony Creek valleys are 

the best examples. The even-crested foothills of Colusa County 

extend through Glenn County to Paskenta, where Paskenta Butte, or 

the lower flat summits near the road at the divide a few miles south 

of Paskenta, afford an excellent and impressive view of the plain 

marked by their summits. The peneplain, so well marked in the foothills, is greatly deformed along the eastern slope of the mountain 

north of the head of Stony Creek. About the head of Stony Creek 

and Bear Creek, in Colusa County, the peneplain which caps the foothills is continuous with that of the mountain crest about the head of 

Eel River. The peneplain rises westward to the crest of the range 

with a gradual change of slope from 1° to 12°, and then gradually 

flattens out again near the summit. Along Stony Creek the continuity has been broken by the broad valley, but from Elk Creek Hill, 

near the town of the same name, to one looking southward the former 

continuity of the plain across the valley is shown by the crests of the 

ridges, and their lower altitude suggests that there is a sag in the 

Bellspring peneplain along Stony Creek and that Stony Creek is a 

consequent stream.

In the divide south of Paskenta, as seen from Millsaps, the continuity is still nearly preserved. The peneplain of the foothills gradually increases its inclination from 1° to 3° or more as it approaches 

the mountain, until, without abrupt transition, it attains an inclination of 14°, passing into the oldest portion of the mountain slope and 

rising to the crest of the range. On the divide near the road on the 

east side, 2 miles south of Paskenta, the flat-topped hills are covered 

with well-rounded gravel, at an elevation of 1,450 feet, and afford a 

fine general view. The peneplain north of Thomas Creek is less 

broken, and the transition from the gentle slope cut upon the nearly 

vertical Cretaceous shales, sandstones, and conglomerates to the 

mountain slope of 10° and more is gradual and continuous, tending 

to confirm the view that the peneplain of western Tehama County is 

of the same age as that so extensively developed on the western slope
22 TOPOGRAPHIC DEVELOPMENT OF KLAMATH MOUNTAINS. [BULU.196.

of the Klamath Mountains. To the southward the view of the Glenn 

County foothills presents a very smooth, even skyline, gently dipping 

eastward for miles. No one could see this slope and doubt the former 

continuity of the plain marked by the even-crested ridges in the foothills of Colusa County.

The eastern slope of the Klamath Mountains is less regular north 

of the fortieth parallel than farther south. The plain is warped and 

broken by displacement and erosion, but near the summit of the 

range the gentler features reappear in the platform of the Yallo Bally 

Mountains, which has a general altitude of about 7,000 feet.

The only point near the coast in California where the two plains 

have been separated is at the northern end of Bear Ridge, which is 

surmounted by an older plain of gentle relief at an altitude of about 

2,500 feet, while on the north slope at 2,000 feet there is a well-marked 

plain cut upon the upturned edges of the Wildcat series. In Oregon 

north of Rogue River, although traces of the second plain have been 

recognized, they appear near the level of the Klamath plain and are 

scarcely distinguishable. It is possible, perhaps probable, that in 

some cases the lower plain is the same as the upper, the discordance 

in the elevations being due to faulting.

On the eastern side of the range is a peneplain below the Klamath 

peneplain, occupying about the same relative position as the Sherwood plain on the west slope. This plain stretches westward from 

the Bald Hills of Shasta County and its occurrence has been already 

described and illustrated.*

THE SHERWOOD PENEPLAIN.

In the foregoing part of this paper the plateau-making peneplains 

have been regarded as the Klamath and the Bellspring, although lower 

peneplains were mentioned as occurring at a number of places. The 

lower plain is most extensively developed along the South Fork of Eel 

River and about Sherwood, near the center of Mendocino County, at 

an elevation ranging from 2,400 to 2,800 feet on the divide between 

the head of the South Fork and Eel River and the main stream to 

the east. In Cahto Peak, about 20 miles northwest of Sherwood, the 

older peneplain is preserved at about 4,200 feet that is, at least 1,400 

feet above the Sherwood plain. The general views of the Sherwood 

plain were not so clear and extensive as was desired, but it appears 

to stretch far eastward and northeastward toward the crest of the 

range, possibly connecting with the one which occurs in Hay Fork Gap 

at 5,000 feet. It is much lower than the southeastern end of South 

Fork Mountain, which carries upon its even crest the Klamath peneplain at an altitude of over 6,000 feet. There thus seems to be an 

increasing difference in the altitude of the two plains toward the crest 

of the range.

1 Fourteenth Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. Survey, Part II, 1894, pp. 406, 410, 412.
U- S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN NO. 196 PL. VIII

A. SHERWOOD PENEPLAIN, RISING WESTWARD FROM BALD HILLS, SHASTA

COUNTY, CAL.

li. SHERWOOD PENEPLAIN Or ,;. -ILLS, SHASTA COUNTY, AND KLAMATH 

PENEPLAIN OF YALLO BALLY MOUNTAINS, TEHAMA COUNTY, CAL.
DILLKR.] THE SHEKWOOD PENEPLAIN. 23

Its relation to the peneplain so well developed on the foothills of 

southern Tehama, Glenn, and Colusa counties, has not been determined.

From the Bald Hills of Shasta County the peneplain rises gradually 

westward (PI. VIII, A) to the flattish crest of the divide, where the 

stage road from Red Bluff to Hay Fork crosses. The best view of this 

plain is obtained from the Bully Choop mine road, at an elevation of 

about 2,500 feet. As one ascends this road two peneplains appear to 

be visible, and their relation is shown in PI. VIII, B, a view taken 

near Watsons Gulch, at an elevation of about 1,100 feet, looking S. 

30° W. The lower plain capping the Bald Hills is the one which 

crosses the range in Hay Fork Gap at an elevation of nearly 5,000 

feet and appears to connect the head of the South Fork of Trinity 

River and of Mad River in Trinity County with the Eel River country in the northern part of Mendocino County.

The higher plain seen upon the distant Yallo Bally Mountains in 

PI. VIII, J5, appears somewhat irregular, but from a level of over 

4,000 feet its plateau character is marked. The upper plain is the 

Klamath peneplain and accords with that so well marked on the 

western slope of the Klamath Mountains. About the southern end of

FIG. 2. Generalized profile of Coast Eange and Klamath Mountains on the fortieth parallel.

South Fork Mountain the two plains may again be observed, but it 

is by no means certain in places that the difference of level is not due 

to displacement and that both are not parts of the same plain. The 

matter can not be definitely settled until the topography and geology 

can be worked up in much greater detail.

In the vicinity of Klamath River there is an extensive deposit of 

gravel, forming the divide west of that stream from the South Fork of 

Trinity River to Gold Bluff on the coast, which belongs, approximately, 

to the Sherwood epoch, and which will be noted more particularly 

under the head of the earlier valleys of the Klamath River.

PROFILE ACROSS COAST RANGE AND KLAMATH MOUNTAINS NEAR THE FORTIETH PARALLEL.

Fig. 2 illustrates a generalized profile of a cross section of the Coast 

Range and Klamath Mountains near the fortieth parallel, which will 

give a clearer idea of the form of these uplands than may be gained 

from the fragmentary descriptions. No survey was made for this 

section, and the plateau feature is somewhat exaggerated by the 

omission of small vallej'S. When viewed from the lowlands along the 

coast or the stream canyon of the western slope, the country looks
24 TOPOGKAPHIC DEVELOPMENT OF KLAMATH MOUNTAINS. [BULL. 196.

decidedly mountainous, but when viewed from the crest of one of the 

high ridges the evenness of the summits becomes prominent and the 

range is seen to lack true mountain topography, except perhaps along 

the crest near the eastern edge, where the Yallo Bally, Bully Choop, 

Trinity, Scott, Salmon, and Siskiyou mountains stand out as peaks or 

clusters of peaks in the general plain.

At the western end of the profile, by the sea, is represented the 

1,000-foot terrace, which, as we shall see later, is one of the most 

prominent and persistent along the coast. Above it the plateau front 

rises to an altitude of about 2,000 feet. The even crests of the ridge at 

this point are plainly visible from Mail Ridge near Harris, at an elevation of 3,500 feet. In the middle view is the Sherwood peneplain, but 

the broad valley of the Garberville stage is scarcely visible. The 

upper slopes of Eel River Valley are long and gentle, while the lower 

ones are short and steep. Beyond Eel River the country is less regular 

than, farther south, where, as seen from the flat summit of Bellspring 

Hill, the Sherwood peneplain has considerable development and 

passes beyond the southern end of South Fork Mountain, which is 

capped by the Klamath peneplain. South Fork Mountain is too far 

north to appear in the above profile. About South Yallo Bally the 

Klamath peneplain is preserved and after passing the crest inclines 

gently eastward for about 6 miles, descending to 6,000 feet, and then 

the slope plunges rather steeply 4,000 feet toward the Sacramento 

Valley. At an elevation of about 2,000 feet the slope again becomes 

gentle, with more or less irregularity due to erosion. Still farther 

eastward a peneplain regarded as the equivalent of the Sherwood 

plain of the west slope soon becomes gravel covered, and so remains 

for the most part until it passes beneath the terraces and alluvial 

plain of the Sacramento River.

ELEVATED BEACHES ALONG SEAWARD BORDER OF KLAMATH PENEPLAIN.

THE COASTAL PLAIN.

The greater portion of the coast from Coos Bay, in Oregon, to the 

mouth of Eel River, in California, a distance of over 250 miles, is bold 

and rocky, rising in steep slopes from the shore line. The reason for 

this is found in the fact that the land is composed generally of hard 

rocks. There are three exceptions to this general rule, where stretches 

along the coast are bordered by a coastal plain generally less than 100 

feet above sea level. These three tracts are, in part at least, connected with deposits of soft Neocene strata, to which is due the greater 

erosion. The first, beginning at the north, extends from Coos Bay to 

beyond Cape Blanco; the second is about the mouth of Smith River 

and Crescent City; and the third extends from Little River, near 

Trinidad, to Eel River about Humboldt Bay. These coastal plains
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVE 

FIN ROCK AND CAPE BLANCO, OREGO
THE COASTAL PLAIN. 25

are arable, and in some places' densely forested, their tillage and 

lumbering industries furnishing occupation for the greater number 

of their inhabitants. The mountains bordering the plains on the east 

are in strong contrast to them and have a scanty population.

For the information of those who may be interested in these small 

coastal plains as physiographic types a fuller statement is made concerning some of their features.

The outer border is the crest of the sea cliff, which ranges from 50 

to 225 feet in height, and is illustrated in PL IX. The cliff is composed chiefly of soft Miocene sandstone, overlain by later deposits of 

sand and gravel, and contains near its base, as shown in the illustration, a layer of marine shells. The soft sediments of the cliff are 

undermined by the waves of the beach and break away by their own 

weight, to be reduced to sand on the beach and spread by the undertow over the adjacent sea floor in new deposits. Where hard rocks 

or gravel occur on the sea cliff and wave action is vigorous, as about 

the head of Cape Blanco, the beach is more or less gravelly. By the 

attack of the waves the sea gradually advances upon the land and 

washes away in large measure the records of its earlier work.

The inner or landward border, Avhich was formerly the shore line, is 

marked in places not only by a sea cliff, but by a mass of shore gravel. 

This feature is illustrated in PI. X, A, where the gravel is mined for 

gold. On the right in the distance is the ancient sea cliff at the base 

of Maddens Butte, which has been connected with a gentler slope by 

its own talus. At its left is the coastal plain, underlain by deposits 

of gravel and sand derived from the cliff. When this coastal plain 

was formed the shore line was along the base of Maddens Butte, and 

the deposits now being mined were on the beach. The older hard 

rocks, such as form the butte and sea cliff beneath the surface soil, lie 

only a few feet beneath the gravel of the mine.

The surface of the coastal plain is generally even, but occasionally 

has ridges of wind-blown sand from the coast, to which they are 

closely limited. The plain from Bandon to Port Orford, although 

well covered with forest or a thick growth of shrubs, is for the most 

part sandy, with many small swamp patches. Here and there, from 

the accumulation of vegetable mold or fine sediment, the soil is fertile 

and cultivated. The same is true of much of the plain north of the 

Chetco River, but south of it are large stretches of fine farming land.

Some of the rocks are so hard as to have successfully resisted the 

attack of the waves when the coastal plain was formed and were not 

reduced to the level of the plains. They stand out as ledges on the 

plain. The most durable of the rocks encountered are of igneous 

origin, filling the chimneys of old volcanoes-. Where such occur they 

stand out prominently as rock stacks upon the plain (PI. X, B). 

These are exceptional. Throughout almost the whole of the coastal 

plain the rocks have been reduced below its level and covered by a 

thin coating of sand and gravel.
26 TOPOGKAPHIC DEVELOPMENT OF KLAMATH MOUNTAINS. [BULL.IQO. 

NORTH OF ROGUE RIVER IN OREGON.

The seaward edge of the Klamath peneplain is a very irregular line 

both in elevation and in its approach to the coast, and "of equal or 

even greater irregularity are the ancient sea beaches on the slope 

from the edge of the peneplain to the coast.

A section of the marine terraces on the plateau front was made 

about 12 miles north of Port Orforcl, in the vicinity of Denmark,, 

along the trail to White Mountain. It is illustrated in fig. 3. The 

coastal plain rises from a low border on the coast at Floras Lake to 

98 feet at Denmark. It is part of the large plain, ranging in width 

from 1 to over 4 miles, generally having an altitude of less than 200 

feet, and extending from near Coos Bay to Port Orford. Its surface is 

even and often swampy, and slightly rolling with sand hills. In Cape 

Blanco the plain rises at a sea cliff to 225 feet. Near the northern 

and southern ends the sea cliff of this coastal plain is over 100 feet 

in height, but from Bandon to Floras Creek it is lower, and is borbered here and there by barrier lakes or ponded streams. Continuing the section from Denmark, at 500 feet is a distinct terrace of

PiQ. 3. Profile of marine terraces 12 miles north of Port Orford, Or3g.

small extent, but at 1,000 feet is a much larger one, having a width 

of over a mile. This level is well marked on the next spur to the 

northward, 2 miles west of Hare, on the road from Langloisto Myrtle 

Point, and is cut on various hard rocks, such as serpentine, schists, 

and igneous rocks, as well as relatively soft sandstones. Some wellrounded pebbles are found at this place, marking the ancient sea 

beach. Marshy spots like those on the coastal plain also occur at this 

level.

Rising over a steeper slope to nearly 1,500 feet, one arrives at a third 

terrace, several miles in width. Like the 1,000-foot terrace, it has 

suffered much from erosion, yet its character is unmistakable. Eastward it is limited by a sea cliff. There is an abrupt change from the 

flat terrace to a steep slope, and then a more gradual change to the 

gentle slope of White Mountain summit, where the peneplain is 

traceable at an altitude of about 2,200 feet.

The sea beach at an elevation of 1,500 feet is the highest seen along the 

coast of the Klamath Mountains, and is very distinct at a number of 

points; for example, by the summit of Bills Peak in the south part of
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

. r

MADDEN'S MINE, ON ELEVATED BEACH 5 MILES EAST 

OF CAPE BLANCO.

H. RO
DILLEB.] TEEEACES NEAE EOGUE EIVEE. 27

the Coos Bay quadrangle, as well as on the trail from. Denmark to 

Eightmile Prairie and on the next divide beyond Crystal Creek. It 

occurs also on the divide between Edson Creek and Sixes River and 

at numerous other points farther south. The terrace connected with 

this beach is usually not wide, but on the whole is one of the best 

preserved of the upper terraces along this portion of the coast.

The 500-foot terrace is most extensively developed north of the 

Coquille, where it is separated from the coastal plain by several sea 

cliffs and intervening plains. The 1,000-foot terrace is well developed near the northern end of the Port Orford quadrangle, and is 

usually the most prominent of the elevated terraces on the coast.

At Port Orford the coastal plain ends and a prominent rocky sea 

cliff begins and continues with scarcely any interruption to the mouth 

of Euchre Creek, where a narrow belt of dune sands appears. Then 

conies a small coastal plain at an elevation of from 60 to 80 feet, extending from Ophir to the mouth of Rogue River. Near Ophir the 

cliff by the sea limiting the plain exposes Pleistocene sands to the 

sea level, but farther south it is cut on harder tilted sandstones and 

shales.

At Port Orford a prominent terrace at 300 feet spreads several 

miles to the northeast toward the Elk River divide. This divide 

rises by a number of terraces to the plains at the 1,000 and 1,500 foot 

levels. The latter is marked east of the stage road in the flat-topped 

hills about the head of Hubbard Creek. From the summit of Humbug Mountain the wide sweeps of the upper plain at about 1,500 feet 

is evident, and when that plain was at sea level Humbug Mountain 

and Colebrook Butte were small islands.

Just north of Rogue River higher terraces may be seen, but they 

are not so conspicuous as the coastal plain. The highest is best displayed along the trail up the southern end of Brushy Bald Mountain 

and is at an elevation of 1,500 feet. The terrace with its sea cliff is 

of but small extent and the rounded slopes above are-distinct.

ROGUE RIVER TO CRESCENT CITY, CAL.

South of Rogue River a small coastal plain extends to Hunters 

Creek, to be replaced beyond by a more precipitous, irregular, rocky 

coast, which extends almost continuously for at least 20 miles to Lone 

Ranch Creek, 7 miles north of the mouth of Chetco River. Although 

this portion of the coast is bold, there are places where higher beaches 

attain considerable size. A section over the seaward slope was made 

from Scotts to the mouth of Lone Ranch Creek. The Klamath peneplain, fronting the coast, has an altitude of 1,800 feet. The first 

traces of terraces were seen at 1,500 feet, where the Lone Ranch 

road turns west to descend over the series of terraces to the coast. 

Although smaller terraces were seen at 1,140, 600, and 400 feet, the
28 TOPOGRAPHIC DEVELOPMENT OF KLAMATH MOUNTAINS. [BULL. 190.

principal terrace, having a broad plain at least a mile wide, ranges 

from 850 to 925 feet and corresponds closely to the 1,000-foot terrace 

seen elsewhere. The next largest terrace occurs at 250 feet and is 

well developed near Lone Ranch. This terrace is the coastal plain, 

and ranges in elevation from 250 feet at the northern end to almost 

sea level below Crescent City iu California, a distance of 50 miles. 

There are small sea cliffs and minor terraces on this plain, but none of 

sufficient prominence to break the continuity of the plain, except 

along Smith River, where a broad flood plain with rich farms is a 

notable feature. The 1,000-foot terrace is well marked nearly to 

Chetco River, but south of that river the coastal plain lies at the foot 

of the plateau escarpment, as shown in PL XI, rising to an altitude 

of 1,700 feet. This plateau escarpment has a slope of 17£°, and the 

absence of all clear traces of the terraces so well marked a few miles 

farther north suggests that it is a fault scarp. Only angular fragments were found along the east edge of the plain at the foot of this 

steep slope, where a beach would be expected if the plain developed 

after the faulting.

Crossing the Windchuck and entering California, one finds that the 

topography changes as Smith River is approached. The plateau front 

becomes less prominent and retreats to 5 miles from the coast, giving 

the coastal plain an extensive development as far south as Crescent 

City. This large coastal plain, less than 50 feet above tide, is due 

doubtless to the presence of soft Neocene rocks, remnants of which 

occur on the coast near Point St. George, as well as on the edge of the 

Klamath peneplain at an elevation of about 2,100 feet. An intermediate terrace was noted east of Crescent City at an elevation of 

about 700 feet, and two others of small extent north of Smith River 

at 1,350 and 1,450 feet, with small swampy patches like those of the 

coastal plain.

SOUTH OF CRESCENT CITY.

South of Crescent City 3 miles the coastal plain, which lies scarcely 

10 feet above the sea level, runs out and the road mounts to the 

plateau formed apparently by the Sherwood peneplain at an altitude 

of about 1,300 feet. The seaward slope of the plateau front is 28° to 

32° and shows no prominent traces of terracing below 1,000 feet. At 

that level, rising to the southeast, there is a densely wooded plain of 

considerable extent, connected by terraces, with higher levels farther 

eastward. Descending toward Wilson Creek the road here and there 

runs close to the steep slope overlooking the sea, and at a number of 

places crosses ravines of tributaries to Wilson Creek, which have been 

beheaded at an elevation of over 800 feet by the landward advance 

of the sea cliff. Whether this beheading is due to simple advance by 

marine erosion or to faulting along this bold slope is not certain, but 

most likely the latter, for if due to erosion alone there must be some 

cause, not readily seen, for such vigorous local action.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

PLATEAU FRONT AND COASTAL PLA'N SOUTH OF CHETCO, 
DILLBB.] TEEEACES SOUTH OF CEESCENT CITY. 29

On approaching the mouth of Klamath River the high front of the 

plateau retreats from the coast, leaving a terrace of very even crest, 

700 to 800 feet in height, extending to the sea cliff. From .this level, on 

the road descending toward Wilson Creek, one sees a cove and valley, 

which he expects to be that of the Klamath River, and is disappointed 

and puzzled to find instead a lagoon and above it a broad, swampy 

valley leading over to Hunters Creek, and, a few miles farther on, to 

the Klamath River a short distance above its mouth. This broad 

valley is in line with the Klamath River above the mouth of Hunters 

Creek, and appears to have been the ancient valley of the Klamath, 

which then entered at what is now called False Klamath Cove.

South of the river the coast road skirts the edge of a platform which 

rises to 700 feet, but smoke and fog prevented a view sufficiently 

extended to determine whether the terrace is a part of the peneplain or is an ancient sea beach below the edge of that plain, the 

latter being much the more probable. The cutting off of the heads of 

the small streams which flowed from the coast toward the Klamath 

River, making in some cases notches 350 feet deep in the crest of the 

sea cliff, is convincing evidence of the advance of the sea upon, the 

land. It is probable that the steep slope facing the sea is a fault scarp 

connecting with the faulting along the coast north of the mouth of 

the Klamath, with which it is parallel.

A flat-topped hill marks the 700-foot level by the road south of Redwood Creek, and affords a fine but limited view of this extensive 

slightly rolling plain. Beyond, the coast is bordered by a remarkable 

series of lagoons along the rather irregular edge of higher terraces. 

At Patricks Point a narrow coastal plain comes in again and continues, 

with some variation in width and altitude, to Mad River, where it is 

succeeded by the broad lowland of Humboldt Bay.

The plateau front marked by the Klamath peneplain at least 12 

miles inland from this portion of the coast has an altitude of about 

3,000 feet. The seaward slope of the low plain about Humboldt Bay 

is terraced, but being cut by many streams its continuity is interrupted and few terraces are prominent. On Lower Mad River the 

principal terraces rise from 200 to over 500 feet. Near the mouth of 

Eel River a terrace is marked at 600 to 700 feet; this terrace is succeeded farther inland by another at nearly a thousand feet, and this 

by a still higher one almost 2,000 feet above tide. The last two are 

developed on the north slope of Bear Ridge. From the mouth of Eel 

River to San Francisco the terraces of the abrupt coast have been 

described by Prof. A. C. Lawson, 1 who reports that the most pronounced and persistent terrace along the southern portion of the 

Humboldt County coast is that which appears very constantly between 

900 and 1,000 feet. 

If now we compare the terraces along the coast from the Umpqua

1 Bull. Dept. Geol. Univ. California, Vol. I, p. 249.
30 TOPOGKAPHIO DEVELOPMENT OF KLAMATH MOUNTAINS. [BULL. 196.

to Humboldt Bay it appears that next to the coastal plain, ranging 

from 10 to about 200 feet above the sea, the 1, 000-foot terrace is the 

most general, and that its occurrence at places all along the coast is 

'evidence not only of a general long halt in the uplifting at that level, 

but also that the uplift since then has been approximately uniform. 

It is probable that much of the 1,000-foot terrace has been removed 

from its western edge by erosion.

MARINE DEPOSITS BORDERING KLAMATH PENEPLAIN.

AT CAPE BLANCO. OREGON.

Neocene deposits have long been known en the coast of Oregon and 

northern California, 1 but in only a few cases have they been described 

and their fossils studied. They are made of the sediments washed 

from the land in developing the Klamath peneplain, which they border, and their age is a matter of importance in determining that of 

the peneplain.

Along the coast of Oregon from the mouth of the Columbia to 

Yaquina Bay 2 these deposits are almost continuous. They are well 

exposed on the Columbia River near and opposite Astoria, along the 

beaches farther south, near the mouth of the Nehalem, at Tillainook 

Bay, and along the beach, bay, and river of Yaquina. Their next 

known occurrence is at Coos Bay, where the Empire beds, of Miocene 

age, are well exposed and have been carefully studied, both stratigraphically 3 and paleontologically. On this account they serve as a 

basis for comparison. South of the Coos Bay quadrangle, which 

extends to the forty-third parallel, Neocene strata occur between 

Floras Lake and Blacklock Point, and from Cape Blanco to the 

mouth of Elk River. Both of these localities are in the Port Orford 

quadrangle and will be more fully described in the folio.

On the north side of Blacklock Point there is' a fine exposure of 

about 100 feet of soft, yellowish sandstone unconformably overlying 

gray sandstones of Cretaceous age. Near the base there are numerous fossils which Dr. Dall recognizes as Miocene of the Empire beds 

horizon.

At Cape Blanco, shown in the distance of PI. IX, looking north, 

there is a sheer cliff of 200 feet of soft sandstones rich in fossils of 

the Empire beds. To the southward the Cape Blanco beds are 

exposed along the coast for 3 miles, dipping gently in the same direction to the mouth of Eel River, .where they pass beneath the beach. 

They are full of fossils throughout, and large enough collections were 

made to leave no question as to their being Miocene of the Empire

l. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 84, 1893, pp. 200-217, 223-227.

2 Seventeenth Ann. Kept. U. S. Geol. Survey, Pt. 1, 1896, p. 29.

3 Coos Bay coal field: Nineteenth Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. Survey, Part III, 1898, p. 319, and 

PI. XL VIII. The formation is described also in the Coos Bay folio, No. 73. See also Dall's paper 

in Eighteenth Ann. Rept., Pt. II.
DILLJSB.] MAKINE DEPOSITS AT CAPE BLANCO. 31

stage. The total thickness of the beds at Cape Blanco shown in 

fig. 4 is about 600 feet. In detail the section is as follows:

Section of beds at Cape Blanco.

Pleistocene (Elk River beds):

Gravel :.............................................................. 4-12

Shell bed, sands,and some gravel ..................................... 7-75

(Unconformity.)

Miocene, Empire beds (Cape Blanco beds):

Argillaceous sands with some calcareous nodnles .-..--..........---.-. 75

Conglomerate -..-----.-...--........---.--.-.-._..................... 25

Light-gray sand beds..._-.-.-..._._...._._....________________________ 50

Yellowish sandstone.................................................. 80

Tuff.................................................................. 20

Yellowish sandstone .................................................. 400

(Unconformity.)

Cretaceous (?): Crushed gray sandstone.

At the mouth of Elk River the Miocene shale occurs at the water's 

edge, and is overlain by nearly a hundred feet of Pleistocene gravel 

and sand (Elk River beds), near the base of which, close to the Miocene, is an unconsolidated shell bed rich in the great variety of its 

fossils. Near the rnouth of Elk River the Pleistocene appears to rest

FIG. 4. Section of beach bluff from Cape Blanco to mouth of Elk River, Curry County, Oreg. 

1, Cretaceous sandstone; 2, yellowish sandstones and, near top, gray shaly sandstone; 3, tuff; 

4, fine whitish sandstone, full of microorganisms; 5, conglomerate (3-5 Empire beds); G, Pleistocene shell beds, sand, and gravel; 6a, point of view for PI. IX.

conformably upon the Miocene, both rising gently toward Cape 

Blanco, where, as shown in fig. 4 and PL IX, the Pleistocene shell 

bed, rich in fossils, rests unconformably upon the Miocene.

Concerning the fossils collected from the Elk River beds, Dr. Dall 

remarks that they "are probably Pleistocene, all the species seeming 

recent, but they may be of the Merced horizon. A larger collection 

is needed to determine this point. They are not older than the newer 

Pliocene." There is considerable difference in the consistency of the 

Cape Blanco and Elk River beds. The former, although generally 

friable in the hand, are in many places hard, and most of the fossils 

occur in calcareous nodules and layers. In the Elk River beds, on 

the other hand, the sand, pebbles, and shells are not cemented. The 

unconformity between the Miocene and Pleistocene possibly represents a rather long interval, during which the Wildcat and perhaps 

the Merced series of California were deposited.

NEAR CRESCENT CITY, CAL.

From the mouth of Elk River southward along the coast no Miocene deposits were found for a distance of over 100 miles. They 

first appear at Point* St. George, a few miles north of Crescent City
32 TOPOGRAPHIC DEVELOPMENT OF KLAMATH MOUNTAINS. [BULL. 196.

in California. From Point St. George both northward and southward for over a mile, soft yellowish and gray shaly sandstones and 

whitish shales full of fossils are exposed, and Dr. Dall refers these 

Point St. George beds, like those of Cape Blanco, to the horizon of the 

Empire beds. Although less than 100 feet of these strata are exposed, 

their determination is based 011 a rather large collection of fossils, 

and we may therefore speak with confidence of the Empire beds of 

Cape Blanco and Point St. George.

Somewhat similar beds occur by the wharf at Crescent City (Crescent 

City beds), and among their fossils Dr. Dall recognizes Pectenparmeleei 

and Terebratalia hemphilli, species heretofore known only from the 

southern California Pliocene.

It is probable that these soft Miocene and Pliocene beds have a wide 

extent under the Pleistocene of the low, broad coastal plain extending 

from Smith River to a point 3 miles south of Crescent City. However 

this maybe, it is certain that they once extended 10 to 12 miles inland 

and have largely disappeared through erosion. Proof of this statement 

is found in the occurrence of Neocene deposits on the edge of the plateau 

at an elevation of about 2,200 feet along the old Wymer stage road, 

in section 20, about 13 miles northeast of Crescent City. North of the 

old Harvey place, where Thomas Haley now lives, a thin coating of 

the soft, iron-stained, slightly indurated shaly sands is exposed on 

the banks of the road for several miles, and has furnished numerous 

imperfect casts of mollusks as well as impressions of leaves. A short 

distance farther eastward, in an excavation made by Mr. Williamson 

near his barn, in section 22, a very fine, soft, gray, sandy clay, very 

slightly indurated, is rich in shells, many of which are microscopic. 

At the surface this bed weathers rusty, and the prominent shells are 

removed from the casts, so that the rock appears like the one on the 

road farther west.

The deposits of the two localities just mentioned will be called, for 

distinctness, the Wymer beds. They are very thin, resting on the 

surface of schists, peridotite, sandstone, and other rocks which have 

been cut down to an approximate plain. These fine argillaceous sediments are composed largely of kaolinic material, with much angular 

quartz of disintegration and numerous minute siliceous organisms of 

radiolarian types. When heated it blackens and then becomes lighter, 

like the bituminous shales of the Monterey series. The Wymer beds 

on the edge of the Klamath peneplain evidently record closely the time 

of most complete peneplanation. Concerning these fossils Dr. Dall 

remarks: "No. 5541 (from Wymer road), a friable yellow shale, with 

very imperfect casts of bivalves, and part of No. 5552 (from Williamson's barn), which is pale straw color but otherwise similar, have a 

Miocene aspect, but they are not of the Empire beds horizon." This 

remark was based on the presence of a Trochita, concerning which 

Dr. Dall remarks later: "On looking.up the literature, I find Gabb
JHLLER.] MARINE DEPOSITS NEAB ORESCENT CITY. 33

records finding1 a Trochita, which agrees v&vy well wit'll the casts in 

the soft yellow shale. It came from the.Contra Costa Miocene of 

Walnut Creek. All the California Trochitas are Miocene, but an 

Eocene species occurs in Alaska. No living1 Pliocene species are 

known, though the allied Galerus occurs. Gabb says 1 that his shell 

was probably new, but he desired to await more material before 

naming it. It is probably of the San Pablo horizon."

The material from these localities is so fragile and the fossils are so 

poorly preserved, especially in the weathered portion, that their age 

must be considered doubtful until a palaeontologist can study the 

fossils in the field and make out a fauna complete enough to give 

value to est imated percentages of living and extinct species. Near 

the eastern limit of the Neocene deposits found in Humboldt County 

about Bridgeville, and thus at least in a measure corresponding to 

those of the Wymer beds, are Miocene species. The beds of the 

Bridgeville region, except where lithified locally by carbonate of lime,

are very soft, like the Wymer beds.

In the Wymer beds, near the fossil shells, were found a number of 

leaf impressions preserved in oxide of iron. These have been studied 

by Dr. F. H. Knowlton, who reports as follows:

The material submitted is a loose, friable, highly ferruginous sandstone, not 

well fitted for retaining plant remains. The plants consist of leaves and fruits, 

but not a single example is preserved, entire. From a somewhat hasty study of 

these fragments I am able to identify with reasonable satisfaction the followingnamed species: Magnolia lanceolata Lesq.. Per sea pseudo-carolinensis .Lesq., 

Laurus salicifolia? Lesq., and Quercus sp.

These species, fragmentary and unsatisfactory as they are, seem to indicate 

that the beds in which they occur are of the same age as the so-called auriferous 

gravels. Magnolia lanceolata was first found in the Chalk Bluffs of Nevada 

County, Cal., and I have recently obtained it from the Mascall beds of the John 

Day Valley, Oregon. Perseapseudo-carolinensis came first from Table Mountain, 

California, and has since been reported by Lesquereux.from Corral Hollow. California, but of this latter determination I am uncertain. I am in doubt as to the 

leaf I have referred to Laurus salicifolia. Only a portion out of the middle of a 

leaf is present and the determination must be regarded as open to question. 

This species was originally described from Corral Hollow, California.

From the evidence at hand it seems safe to say that the affinities of these beds 

are with the auriferous gravels, or Upper Miocene.

In order, if possible, to determine more closely the age of the Neocene beds of the coast of northern California, Dr. Dall spent a part 

of the summer of 1901 in that region, and concerning the Williamson 

Barn locality he reports by letter of October 28, 1901, as follows:

Find the excavation filled up and the locality so overgrown with brush as to be 

unidentifiable with exactness. But the same beds reach the surface at a point 

about one-fourth mile southwest by compass from Fred Wilkins's hotise on the 

brow of the hill west of Williamson's place. Here the removal of a few inches of

1 Pal. Cal., Vol. II, p. 15.

Bull. 196 02 3
34 TOPOGRAPHIC DEVELOPMENT OF KLAMATH MOUNTAINS. [BULL. 196.

detritus showed a plastic, clayey material, bluish when first exposed, but becoming with exposure a very friable light shale, nearly white, with ferruginous 

streaks. Owing to the facts that there are no outcrops and the country is overr 

grown with brake and shrubbery, the distribution of this material can not be 

stated. No shells are preserved in it, but it presents impressions of Cerithiopsis, 

Peristernia? Dentalium, Amauropsis or Ampullina, a very abundant Macoma, 

Lepton? Galerus, Balanus, corals, and small fishes. None of the species was 

recognizable as known in other Tertiary rocks, and the beds maybe newer or 

older than the prevalent Miocene of lower altitudes in the same region. If the 

naticoid is really an Ampullina it would point toward an Oligocene age, but none 

of the others is characteristic, as far as I know.

The Wymer beds of Diller may have been deposited at the time of the greatest 

Miocene depression and before the subsequent elevation initiated the erosion 

which followed. Their fossils, unfortunately, are not characteristic, except that 

they are not older than the Tertiary.

Dr. Dall's examination of the beds about Crescent City was much 

more extensive, and his report in the letter noted above is given below 

in full:

Localities near Crescent City. South of the long pier at Crescent City the 

beach is sandy, with no outcrops of rock for half a mile or more. North of the 

pier, between tides, at the level of the bsach and dipping a little seaward, is' a very 

soft bluish sandstone (4) containing pebbles and worn fragments of carbonized 

wood.

Sea level ___________

7 

FIG. 5. Crescent City section at Battery Point.

A few invertebrates occur sparsely, including Terebratalia hemphilli Dall, 

which is known elsewhere only from the Pliocene beds of Santa Barbara. The 

thickness of this bed below rnidtide is unknown. Above this lies a bed of yellowish sand and clay (3), about as compact as (4), with a good many included pebbles, especially near the base. It is conformable with No. 4, and shows wavestructure and occasional modifications of color, etc., locally. It contains no 

fossils, and has a thickness of 6 to 10 feet, rarely more. No. 2 is also nonfossiliferous, slightly consolidated and variable in this respect, and composed of 3 to 

5 feet of yellow sand. Between No. 2 and the turf on the east side of Point St. 

George lies 12 to 18 inches of black kitchen-midden soil containing many fragments of shells (recent species), charcoal, cetacean bones, round pebbles for 

cracking the shells, and an occasional bone awl, but no weapons or stone implements. Nos. 1 to 4 abut unconformably upon masses of a much altered sandstone (No. 7), which has, in the main, lost its bedding, but in one instance was 

observed to dip inland 45°. This rock is much contorted and crushed, nearly 

black, and very hard in places. It contains large fragments of carbonized or 

petrified wood, apparently Sequoia, and dioritic pebbles of various sizes, some 

very large. Here and there is an intrusion of dioritic rock, or the mass of the 

sandstone has become crystalline from alteration. Of this hard rock the reefs 

and islets in Crescent City roadstead and at Point St. George and northward are 

composed. The large offshore islets show traces of the softer yellow sandstones 

on their summits in many cases. This rock (No. 7) emerges along the shores 

northward from Battery Point in many places until the bluffs are interrupted by
UILU3H.] MAKINE DEPOSITS. 35

the flats about Lake Earl. Unconformably upon it (Station 5339, etc., of Diller, 

1900) lies a Miocene sandstone replete with marine fossils, chiefly Macoma and 

Tapes. It is massive, and at the bottom where it rests upon the metamorphic 

rock it contains a multitude of waterworn pebbles, which at the base make up 

the mass of the rock and grow sparser upward.

These Miocene layers are unconformable with No. 7, but are not horizontal; they 

are more or less arched over the irregularities of No. 7, and in the longest stretch 

observed seem to have a dip of 20° to the northward. The upper surface seemed 

more or less eroded, and upon it lie horizontally the yellow sand beds corresponding 

to No. 2 and No. 3 of the Crescent City section. I found no trace of the supposed 

Pliocene No. 4, and it may have been eroded here before the deposition of No. 2 and 

No. 3. The dikes of No. 7 do not cut the Miocene beds. Near the northwest end of 

Pebble Beach a low solid mass of fossiliferous Miocene rises 8 to 10 fee fc above the 

beach, capped with some nonfossiliferous, soft, sandy layers dipping 27° north and 

a little east. About 3 feet thick at the farther end, they rapidly increase eastward 

to about 12 feet visible above the beach, and, losing their lamination, become massive. The Miocene is in sight only a short distance, then passes below the beach 

level, but the sand beds seem to be more or less conformable with it and are perhaps of nearly the same age. The latter are planed off at the top, horizontal, and 

the beds 8 and 2, above, being softer, the lower sand bed stands out like a bench 

between the Miocene point and the roadway up the bluff. a"t the northeast end of 

the beach. Beds No. 2 and No. 3 are the same as the beds so numbered in the 

Crescent City section, nonfossiliferous. sandy or gravelly in different proportions 

at different localities, but conformable to each other and nearly horizontal, dip-

_

FIG. 6. Pebble Beach section, 2 miles north of Crescent City, Cal.

ping slightly seaward. The sandstone below them and above the.fossiliferous bed 

may perhaps be the equivalent of the Pliocene bed (No. 4) at Point St. George.

The result of the examination of the rocks of Crescent City is to indicate for No. 

7 an unconformity with the succeeding beds formed by an eroded surface, then a 

cessation of crumpling and dike formation, then, after a depression, the deposition 

of coarse gravels shading into sandstone of Miocene age. followed by a thin Pliocene layer; then another erosion period, followed by a deposit of unfossiliferous 

sand in horizontal layers, which has been moderately elevated.

ON MAD RIVER.

A few miles south of Crescent City the coastal plain runs out; the 

shore becomes abrupt and rocky, and so continues to beyond Trinidad Head, where the broad lowland about Humboldt Bay comes in 

and at once suggests a large area of soft rocks. By the road, as this 

large coastal plain is approached, hard sandstones and dioritic and 

other igneous rocks occur here and there among the sands, gravels, 

and shell beds of the coast. Ascending Mad River beyond Blue Lake 

the alluvial plain ends abruptly at North Fork against bluffs of tilted 

sand beds locally rich in shells. These soft beds form the hills whose 

flat tops mark the ancient valley of Mad River, up which they extend 

at least as far as the mouth of Canyon Creek. A bold bluff at that
36 TOPOGKAPHIC DEVELOPMENT OF KLAMATH MOUNTAINS. [iwM,190.

point exposes about 100 feet of soft, fossiliferous sandstones striking 

N. 40° W. and dipping 30° NE. The dip of these soft beds wherever 

seen on both sides of Mad River Valley was to the northeast, as if the 

mass is monoclinal. At the mouth of Canyon Creek they rest on 

hard gray sandstones and dark shales, much crushed and twisted, 

with an average strike of N. 35° W. and dip 75° NE. The soft sandstones are locally lithified by calcareous cement, so that fossils, 

although generally in sand that is scarcely indurated, in some layers are in hard material. Among the fossils collected from this 

place Dr. Dall recognizes Macoma sp. near edentula Sby., Macoma 

near M. kelseyi Dall, Cardium near ciliatum Fabr., Cardium near 

corbis Mart., Macoma near expansa Cpr., Mytilus n. sp., and Mytilus 

near edulis, and regarded the forms as "? Upper Miocene." Nearby, 

on Montgomery Creek, from beds occurring close to the top of the 

bluff from which the above-named fossils were collected, we obtained 

Mytilus sp., Tapes sp., and Spisula sp., which Dr. Dall regards as 

"? Pliocene."

ON EEL RIVER FERNDALE AND RIO DELL.

Similar deposits, some of which are tuffaceous, occur along the road 

at points between Vance and Ferndale, b}^ way of Eureka, but it is in 

the Eel River region that the series has its best exposure. On the 

road leading from Ferndale south across Bear Ridge, as pointed out 

by Professor Lawson, the Wildcat series of soft shales, sandstone, and 

conglomerate affords an almost continuous section. In the lower portion of the section shales predominate, while sands are most abundant 

in the middle portion, and conglomerates occur with the sandstone 

near the top. The beds do not vary greatly in position. Strike N. 

75° W. and dip 24° NE. may be given as a close approximation to the 

general position of the shale, with a somewhat smaller dip for the 

sandy beds near the top of the series. Fossils were collected from 

the lower portion of the series, reaching up nearly to the middle, as 

exposed along the road. Those collected from the several localities 

were kept separate, but all have been pronounced either " probably 

Miocene" or "Upper Miocene." The rusty yellow to whitish fine 

argillaceous sand close to the base of the series is very full of microscopic organisms, which resemble closely in a general way those of 

the Empire beds of Coos Bay and Cape Blanco.

The same series is well exposed along Eel River, as described by 

Lawsou, from Scotia down the river, and is especially rich in fossils 

opposite Rio Dell. The soft sandstones and shales strike N. 75° W. 

and dip 65° NE. On the left bank of Eel River, a little above Scotia, 

the crushed dark-gray sandstones and shales, most likety of Mesozoic 

age, are exposed beneath the basal beds of the Wildcat series.

Below Scotia the right bank affords an almost continuous section for 

several miles. Sandy shales and ordinary argillaceous shales are most
] MARINE DEPOSITS NEAR EEL RIVER. 37

abundant toward the base, and the sandiness of the beautifully stratified series increases somewhat upward to a heavy conglomerate which 

appears to correspond to those observed on the road a short distance 

south of Ferndale. The thickness of the strata in the Wildcat series 

beneath the conglomerate in the Rio Dell section appears to be less 

than that at Ferndale, but measurements were not made to determine 

the difference. Overlying the conglomerate is a heavy mass of sandstone which forms a bluff below the month of Price Creek. Conglomerate with sandstones occurs beyond this at Alton, forming the bluff 

of College Hill, and dips gently to the northeast. The form of the terraces in that region, on the road from Rohnville to Hydesville, suggests faulting. These soft beds extend up the Van Deuzen. most of 

the way toward Bridgeville before rising above the river to the hills 

and exposing the older rocks in the river banks. Upon the hills they 

extend much farther east, for at Bridgeville fossiliferous fragments 

are found in the river bed and along the stage road 4 miles farther

south, near Burr Creek, at an elevation of 1,350 feet, within a few 

feet of the underlying Mesozoic rocks. The beds are composed chiefly 

of sand and appear to dip gently westward. They are probably near 

the eastern limit of the formation as now exposed, and correspond, at 

least in that respect, to the Wymer beds farther north. The fossils 

collected at these two localities in 1889 and also in 1900 were all 

determined as Miocene species. On the Bridgeville stage road no 

fossils were seen south of Burr Creek, but above Dyerville a few 

miles, on Eel River, they occur, and also at many points throughout 

the long valley of the South Fork of Eel River.

An extensive collection of fossils was made along Eel River from 

Scotia to the mouth of the Van Deuzen, and those from the various 

localities were kept separate, so that the paleontologist might have 

some basis for recognizing differences in horizons. Care was taken 

to collect only material in place. The fossils collected by Professor 

Lawson from the Ferndale and Rio Dell sections were identified 

by Prof. John C. Merriam, and the age of the Wildcat series, on a 

percentage basis of living and extinct species, was determined to be 

Pliocene. Considering this subject in his report on the fossils which 

my party collected in 1900, Dr. Dall remarks:

The problem as to their age is not easily settled, and a few explanatory remarks 

may be useful. The standard Miocene fauna of the Pacific coast is that known 

as the horizon of the Astoria or Empire beds of Coos Bay. We have a good series, 

the result of many years' collecting at Coos Bay by an amateur. While many of 

these are new or undescribed, the possession of the series and a careful stratigraphical section of the rocks from which they came leaves no doubt (1.) of their position 

with regard to the Eocene and Oligocene, and (2) of the chief constituents of the 

fauna. By comparison it is easy to see whether the same species occur in any other 

series of fossils sent in for examination, without reference to what the proper names 

of the particular species may be.

On the other hand, the only strictly defined Californian marine Pliocene fauna 

which has been recorded is that of San Diego, in the southern part of the State.
38 TOPOGRAPHIC DEVELOPMENT OF KLAMATH MOUNTAINS.

Now, there is little doubt that during the Pliocene, as well as at present, there was 

a marked difference between the contemporaneous faunas of the San Diego region 

and of northern California and Oregon. From these facts it follows that the Pliocene of northern California, if it exists, would be difficult to determine by paleontological comparison with that of San Diego, and might comprise an almost totally 

distinct series of species. Firrthermore, no reliable lists of the Merced (Pliocene) 

or the Monterey (Miocene) faiinas of the middle part of the State have been made 

public, and the condition of the fossils generally leaves much to be desired.

Lawson has made a study of the geomorphology of the region near Rio Dell, 

from which the fossils sent by Mr. Diller are largely derived. He regards them 

as Pliocene, the identifications being due to Dr. John C. Merriam. Paleontologic 

data alone are of value to determine the relations of a given horizon to the general 

geologic column. In the present case the fossils comprise a large number of species which are similar to recent forms, and have iisually, as in Dr. Merriam's list, 

been assumed to be identical with the recent forms they resemble. If the determination of age be made by the method of percentages of siirviving forms, it is 

obvious that they will show on these assumptions a percentage sufficient to justify 

the reference of these beds to the Pliocene, as has been done. On the other hand, 

if these fossils are merely prototypes and not identical, this will reverse the determination and put the fauna in the Miocene.

I confess to strong doubts as to the specific identity of many of the forms in 

question with their recent analogues. The Rio Dell fossil fauna contains a certain number of species also found in the Empire beds, and some of the most common species are also common at Coos Bay, but as a whole the fauna is markedly different. It is not only different in the census of species as a whole, but it represents a more northern or colder water assemblage. Indeed, the whole fauna bears 

a striking resemblance to the existing fauna of the Gulf of Alaska, of which it is 

beyond question a precursor.

Now, the Alaskan Unga beds and the Oregonian Empire beds agree in possessing 

many species in common and in having a warm temperate facies. They are 

doubtless contemporaneous, and certainly Miocene. We have in the Rio Dell 

fauna, then, a record of a marked change of temperature and an incursion of 

northern species, because it is not credible that a warm-water fauna could exist 

in Alaska coincidently with a cold-water fauna in California. I feel confident, 

then, that the Rio Dell fauna is younger than the Empire beds fauna. On the 

other hand, the Pliocene of southern California represents much more typical

conditions than the subsequent Quaternary or the antecedent southern Miocene, just as the Floridian Pliocene does for the Floridian region. Many species 

now known only in the Gulf of California lived at San Diego during the Pliocene. 

It is probable, then, that the presence of the boreal fauna at Rio Dell represents 

a cold interval between the time of the Empire beds and the Pliocene properly so 

called.

The fossils of Rio Dell are contained in a sandstone that is usually pretty tough 

and often very hard. There is no Pliocene fauna known to me which occurs in a 

rock so indurated as this. Moreover, the color of the matrix is, when unaltered, 

of the bluish tint which is almost characteristic of the Miocene everywhere in 

America.

The genus Lyropecten is characteristic of the Miocene all over the temperate 

regions of the globe. A splendid species (L. dilleri Dall) occurs at Rio Dell. No 

Lyropecten has so far been reported from any positively Pliocene horizon. This 

species is the analogue of the P. madisonius of the Chesapeake Miocene, as the 

P. crassicardo Conrad of the San Pablo Miocene horizon of middle California is 

the analogue of the P. jeffersonius of the Chesapeake Atlantic Miocene.

On the other hand, some of the species at Rio Dell are identical with species of 

the Merced Pliocene horizon near San Francisco.
MAKIKE DEPOSITS NEAR EEL EIVEE. 39

At Crescent City, in a nonindurated deposit, Mr. Diller found Pecten parmele&i 

and Terebratalia hempMlli, species heretofore known only from the southern Californian Pliocene. In my opinion this bed must be held to be of the same age as 

that at San Diego.

To sum up. I incline to the belief that the Rio Dell horizon should be referred to 

the Upper Miocene; it is certainly younger than the Empire beds, possibly younger 

than the San Pablo, but older than the Merced horizon.

The determinations of. the several localities, beginning at the base of 

the Ferndale section, are as follows:

5562. North slope of Bear Ridge, by the stage road nearly 7 miles south of Ferndale; elevation 1.950 feet. Macoma sp., Acila sp., fine brown shale, probably Miocene. 5564 and 5565 are similar, with casts of Yoldia, Neverita, 

and fish bones.

5566. Four and one-fourth miles south of Ferndale, on stage road to Bear River. 

Bed 18 inches thick. Very badly crushed, friable brown shale, with defective casts of Pecten, Yoldia, Area, Cardium. Siliqua, Neverita, Tapes, Pecten like meelcii, Pectenlike opuntia, Pleurotomaperversa G-abb, Neptunea, 

Capulus, and Balanus. Upper Miocene?

In the Eel River section, lying at the base 5574, opposite Scotia; " certainly Miocene Empire beds probably." 5573, below Scotia, right bank 

by fording. '' Crab remains Miocene?''

5567-8-9-70. Bluffs opposite Rio Dell. 5576. By slide below Rio Dell. Upper 

Miocene of Rio Dell. Pecten dilleri n. sp., Yoldia impressa Conrad (Miocene), Neptunea altispira Gabb (Miocene), Priene n. sp. (Miocene), Spisula (Miocene), Macoma sp. (Miocene), Tapes staleyi Gabb (MiocenePliocene) , Neptunea n. sp., Cardium like corbis, Neverita (Miocene?), Bela 

sp., Siliqua near hicida, Yoldia near scissurata, Serripes gronlandicus 

Beck (Miocene-Pliocene), Macoma like tenera Leach? Nassa near mendica, 

Dentalium sp., Balanus sp., Pectenpropatulus Conr. (Miocene-Pliocene), 

Marcia near subdiaphana (Olig.-Rec.), Tresus near nuttallii, but distinct, Thracia sp., Panomya sp.. Echinarachnius near interstriata Blake. 

In this list those noted as Miocene are known from the Empire beds.

5577. Below rnouth of Price Creek in Eel River. Crushed fragments in a soft 

matrix, Pliocene? These include, besides fragments, Neverita and Parpura 

decemcostata, not found in older beds. It may even be Pleistocene.

As a result of Dr. Dall's recent examination of the Neocene deposits 

in the Eel River region, he has furnished the following notes:

Notes on the beds along the "Wildcat road.'" At the base of the beach bluff 

the same basal metamorphic sandstones (No. 7) noted at Crescent City, with 

numerous small white veins of quartz, calcite, or borate of lime, which are covered unconformably by heavy beds of gravel, perhaps the equivalent of the basal 

Miocene gravel at Crescent City, occur, but in much greater thickness and mass, 

while in the places I was able to examine these beds of pebbles and coarse gravel 

are directly covered with the later alluvium (No. 2 and No. 3) without exhibiting 

any of the finer grained beds, such as carry Miocene fossils at Crescent City. As 

in the case of the Crescent City Miocene, they dip gently away from the sea, and 

are usually arched over the irregularities of the metamorphic sand rock (No. 7). 

Above the gravels at the north end of the beach bluffs occur the yellow horizontal 

sandstones (Nos. 2 and 3) noticed at Crescent City. Here they cap the gravels at 

several points, but are absent in other places.

On the Capetown or Wildcat road the exposiires of rock, except in a few places, 

are poor, and as a rule the beds exposed are either fragmental or not indurated.
40 TOPOGRAPHIC DEVELOPMENT OF KLAMATH MOUNTAINS. [BULL. 196.

No very high dips were observed and nothing which could be called vertical. 

None of the exposures appeared to be fossiliferous. On the seaward side of the 

road was noticed an indurated shale, destitute of fossils, in thin layers and much 

shattered. Next massive beds of fine-grained sandstone like those noticed above 

the Miocene at Pebble Beach, Crescent City. These dipped about 20° northward, 

as shown by very thin streaks of fine gravel. Otherwise there was little indication of the bedding. This bed is the thickest and best exposed on the whole section, and so much of it had recently been cut away that it is almost certain that 

if there were fossils in it they would have been noticed. Apparently above this 

and northward from it were heavy beds of pebbles with a little fine gravel between 

them. These pebbles were waterworn and rarely exceeded 3 inches in longer 

diameter. Still farther south were seen in several places stream gravels containing some heavy bowlders. On the whole, my conclusions from this rapid reconnaissance were that, excepting some projections of the metamorphic sandstone 

(No. 7) near Capetown, there was nothing along this section which might not be 

Upper Miocene or later, though a much more thorough study of the details is 

required before the relations and age of the sands and gravels can be fixed.

Rio Dell and vicinity. The series of bluffs which border the plain of Eel River 

from Scotia to the mouth of the Van Deusen were carefully examined. Opposite 

Rio Dell they consist of irregularly alternating layers of shale and sandstone 

completely conformable and doiibtless the result of continuous sedimentation. 

They dip N. 30° E. at an average angle of 45°, but are more or less bent or curved 

in many places, while preserving a general parallelism. In some places the rock 

has become a tolerably hard sandstone, and these hard layers are usually replete 

with fossils, mostly bivalves. The shaly layers disintegrate deeply under the 

influence of the sun, and every year sees a sheet of this disintegrated material 

several inches thick carried down from the softer spots. At the extreme north 

end, near the Scotia footbridge, the beds are more argillaceous and soft. The 

bedding is here very indistinct, and in some places appears to be nearly vertical, 

as if the end of the bluffs had received the crushing diie to a pressure of the beds 

from the north and east. On the west side of the river, at the so-called Blue 

Slide, the beds dip nearly N. magnetic about 45°.

At Grizzly Bluff, opposite the end of the bluffs at the confluence of the Van 

Deiisen, 2 miles below Blue Slide, the rock is a massive soft sandstone in beds 6 

to 10 feet thick; some beds contain gravel or pebbles and above the base is a heavy 

bed of stream gravel. The dip is N. 5°-10°, gradually diminishing northward, the 

Strata becoming more gravelly and barren upward. There were no unconformities observed. To all appearances, after examination at several other points, the 

massive soft sandstones continue with increasing northerly dip up the valley to a 

point north by compass from the house of Mr. Henry Davis at Rio Dell, where 

they are conformably succeeded by the softer light-gray shaly sandstones.

In a general way it looks as if the valley had been the scene of rather intense 

deposition of sand, clay, and gravel from the Upper Miocene to some period in 

the Pliocene without marked tmconf ormity and with a continuous fauna which 

changed, if at all, chiefly by some species becoming more rare or disappearing 

entirely. These sediments were gradually tilted by pressure and more or less 

crimipled. But the forces exerted were not transmitted far in the line of pressure, btit were remarkable by their effects on the periphery of the deposits, portions of which were elevated to the height of the highest existing hills. The 

uppermost sediments ai-e, of course, younger than the lower ones, but I have seen 

nothing in the abundant fossil fauna or its distribution to alter my opinion first 

expressed after an examination of the fossils alone, that the characteristics of the 

fauna point to an Upper Miocene age and no distinctively Pliocene species of mollusks appear in it anywhere. A large part of the sands and gravels of the more
FLUVIO-ESTUAEINE DEPOSITS. 41

seaward summits appear very recent and may be Pleistocene, but to fix these 

accurately and conclusively more lengthened and detailed study will be required 

than any rapid reconnaissance can afford.

NEAR ROUND VALLEY.

A most important deposit of Neocene beds occurs on Middle Fork 

at the mouth of Salt Creek, 8 miles southwest of Covelo, Mendocino 

County. These beds have been described by Mr. Goodyear 1 and 

others, 3 who give a detailed section of the deposit on account of the 

coal bed it contains. The coal is about 14 feet thick, strike N. 25° 

W., dip 25° NE., and lies between fragile shales having a total thickness of about 100 feet. Shells are reported, but their determination 

is not given.

The same formation extends up Salt Creek for a number of miles. 

Three miles west of Eden Valley, near the head of Salt Creek, an 

oyster bed occurs with 20 feet of soft shale having essentially the same

strike and dip as that a few miles northwest. It rests directly upon 

serpentine at an elevation of over 3,700 feet. Fossils from this locality were referred to Dr. Ball, who reports "fragments of a very large 

oyster and small barnacles of Miocene type, but specifically indeterminable owing to defective state. This locality is especially interesting as representing about the most eastern part at which Miocene 

marine beds have been detected in northern California." On the map 

(PI. I) the approximate coast line of the Miocene is indicated, and it 

may be seen that practically the whole of the northern end of the 

Coast Range was then below sea level.

FTjUVIO-ESTlIARHSTE DEPOSITS OF TRINITY DRAINAGE.

AT HYAMPOM.

In addition to the purely marine Neocene deposits, all of which lie 

on the southwest side of the shore line indicated on the .map, there 

are other deposits of brackish- or fresh-water origin whose relation to 

those occurring nearer the coast is not yet fully known/ They occur 

at Hyampom and Hay Fork, along Hay Fork, which drains into 

the South Fork of the Trinity, and at Big Bar, Weaverville Basin, 

Redding Creek Basin, and near Lowdens, all of which are drained by 

Trinity River. The general distribution of these deposits was outlined some years ago, 3 but fossils lately found have given greater definiteness to our knowledge of them.

Hyampom is at the junction of Hay Fork and the South Fork of 

Trinity River, at an elevation of about 1,400 feet. In September, 1889, 

the writer passed that way and observed coal-bearing rocks at one 

place having a thickness of about 40 feet, with a strike N. 10° to 25°

1 Coal Mines of the Pacific Coast, p. 74.

2 State Mining Bureau of California, Twelfth Report of the State Mineralogist, p. 57.

"Fourteenth Ann. Eept. U. S. Geol. Survey, Pt. II, 1894, PI. XLV, p. 414.
42 TOPOGRAPHIC DEVELOPMENT OF KLAMATH MOUNTAINS. [BULL. 196.

W., dip 20° to 30° NE. In these beds are two layers of coal and carbonaceous material, one 10 feet thick, the other 5. Toward the top is a 

bed of volcanic dust 1 foot thick, and 16 feet below it is a much smaller 

bed. The remainder of the series inclosing the coals and layers of 

volcanic ash consists of shales, some of which are so finely bedded as 

to be decidedly laminated. Their reddish color, due to weathering, 

gives them an aspect of age, and they contain a few fossil leaves. 

Coal has been found at several points in the valley, especially toward 

the north end, where Hay Fork enters from a canyon in rocks uuconformably below the coal-bearing sediments of the valley. Near the 

mouth of the canyon the coal-bearing series, which for convenience 

we will call the Hyampom beds, have an exposed thickness of 250 feet, 

the upper 100 feet being conglomerate and the lower portion sandy, 

containing here and there concretions. Some of the sandstones are 

rather hard, strike N. 85° E., with a dip of 30° SE., and contain coaly 

beds. Near the base of the series is 25 feet of conglomerate, and the 

bottom portion, about 30 feet in thickness, is not exposed. The volcanic beds were not found at this point, although the coaly beds are 

exposed.

The limitations of the Hyampom beds to the valley of the same 

name, 3 or 4 miles in length and of less breadth, their unconformity 

with the underlying formation, and their composition and fossils indicate that they are of local origin in a lake, or rather in a ponded 

stream. Since then they have been compressed and tilted. They lie 

at the northeast base of South Fork Mountain, over 4,000 feet below 

its even-crested summit which marks the Klamath peneplain. It is 

possible that they have been faulted down from near the level of the 

Klamath peneplain, and, being soft, have led to the development of 

Hyampom Valley. It is possible also that they belong to a later river 

stage, but their exact relation to the coastal deposit is not yet known, 

although it is certain on account of their position that they have been

displaced in much the same way as the marine beds of the coast.

Among the fossil plants found at this locality in 1889, Professor 

Ward recognizes Taxodium distichum miocemvm Heer, which he says 

is "abundant in the Arctic Tertiaries as well as those of Europe and 

elsewhere." It differs so slightly from the living Taxodium distichum, 

our well-known cypress, that it may be expected in any of the later 

formations, and is therefore of little geognostic value further than to 

make it probable that the Hyampom beds are not lower than the 

Tertiary or highest Cretaceous.

This report of Professor Ward was made December 20, 1889. Dr. 

Knc\vlton has since given much attention to the Tertiary floras of the 

Pacific coast, and a letter addressed to him asking for later information brought the following reply, dated January 22, 1901:

Regarding Taxod'him distichum miocenum, I may say that in only one place in 

the world, namely, Oeningen, is it known in the Pliocene, and even this locality
FLUVIO-ESTUAKINE DEPOSITS. 43

is doubtful, for it may be only extreme Upper Miocene. It is mainly a Miocene 

species, occurring abundantly in many parts of the world, but has also been 

reported from the Oligocene'or even a little lower, in the Eocene. Theoretically it 

should be found in the Pliocene as well as Pleistocene somewhere, as it is.but 

slightly different from the living Taxodium distichum, our well-known cypress. 

Plant beds in these formations (Pliocene and Pleistocene) are extremely rare.

Concerning the fossils collected for the writer by Mr. Storrs at 

Hyampom, in June, 1901, Dr. Knowlton reports, December 3, 1901, 

MS follows:

This collection consists of about 25 pieces of thin, yellowish white matrix, in 

which are preserved apparently four species of fossil plants, as follows: Sequoia 

angustifolia Lesq., Sequoia langsdorfd (Brgt.) Heer., Salix sp. (large lanceolate, 

serrate leaf), Salix sp. (small ovate-lanceolate, entire-margined leaves). The 

first of these leaves (Sequoia angustifolia) was originally described by Lesquereux from Elko, Nev., and has since been found at Corral Hollow, Cal., and in 

the Payette formation near Marsh post-office, Idaho. The specimens from 

Hyampom are absolutely the same as those from Corral Hollow, and should be 

Upper Miocene in age. -

There is only a single example with its counterpart that is referred to Sequoia 

langsdorfd. This is exactly similar to numerous specimens from the Mascall beds 

of the John Day Basin, Oregon. It is a species widely distributed throughout the 

Tertiary, but is perhaps most abundant in the Miocene.

The species of Salix do not appear to be described, but they are not greatly 

unlike well-known forms from the Miocene.

We therefore seem warranted in placing the beds containing this little flora in 

the Upper Miocene

AT HAY FORK.

Sediments similar to those of Hyampom, locally associated with 

coal, occur farther up Hay Fork, near the town of Hay Fork. 

According to Mr. Hershey's preliminary map they extend for 10 

miles nearly east and west, with a width of about a mile. In these 

deposits, at a point about 3 miles down the creek from the town of 

Hay Fork, Mr. Storrs found the sandstones and shales striking N. 

10° W. and clipping 35° NE. He collected a number of fossil leaves, 

among which* Mr. F. A. Lucas recognizes some sharks' teeth, and 

remarks that 

They appear to belong to the genus Lamna; more than that it is impossible to 

say, and this throws little light on the age of the stratum in which they occur, as 

the genus has a considerable range in time and space. However, they are salt-, 

water species, but liable to occur at the mouth of rivers. I have never seen 

eh arks' teeth so much flattened as these, particularly in view of the soft character 

of the matrix.

Tliis is an especially important discovery, for it fixes the level at 

which the deposits originated at about sea level. 

Concerning the leaves, Dr. Knowlton says:

This collection consists of some twenty or more pieces of matrix, hard and 

coarse grained, on which the plants are very poorly preserved. A number of 

species are evidently present, but owing to the poor state of preservation it is
44 TOPOGRAPHIC DEVELOPMENT OF KLAMATH MOUNTAINS. [Bur^.196.

possible to determine only tlie following: Sequoia angustifolia Lesq. (single 

specimen), Salix anymta Al. W. (nurnerotis specimens), Quercm sp. (large leaf, 

but badly broken), large three-ribbed leaf, but without margin.

The remarks trader Sequoia anguntifolia in the former report apply here. 

Salix angusta also has a wide distribution in the Tertiary, but the specimens 

tinder consideration are very similar to numerous leaves referred to this species 

from the auriferous gravels of California.

The results obtained from the study of this material are far from satisfactory. 

Only two species, and these of general distribution in the Tertiary, can at present 

be determined. Relying on their resemblance to material known to have come 

from the auriferous gravels, it seems not improbable that the Hay Fork beds may 

be similar in age, namely, Upper Miocene.

REDDING CREEK AND WEAVERVILLE REGION.

Deposits of the same sort occur in the valley of Redding Creek 6 

miles southeast of Douglas City. They overlie the fpssiliferous Cretaceous rocks of that basin, with strike about N. 65° E. and dip 25° 

SE. A mass of conglomerate rests upon volcanic tuffs and shale in 

which some coal has been found, and in the shales occur traces of 

leaves, among which Prof. Lester F. Ward recognizes a Ficus whose 

age he hesitates to pass upon, although he suggests that the form 

points to a position lower than the auriferous gravels of Chalk Bluff. 

The latest researches of Mr. Li'ndgren 1 indicate that the Chalk Bluff 

beds are of Miocene age.

By far the largest and most important Neocene river deposit, having a thickness of about 1,000 feet, is in the vicinity of Weaverville, 

extending northeastward for nearly 20 miles, with an average breadth 

of over 1 mile, to near Swift Creek. Smaller areas of the same tilted 

conglomerates, sandstones, and shales of little coherence occur southwest of Weaverville near the Junction City road, at several points on 

Browns Mountain, and along the Trinity River from a short distance 

above Lowdens-southward for about 4 miles. Large bones and teeth 

have been reported to the writer by miners from the Weaverville 

Basin, but definite information could not be obtained so as to fix the 

place of the fossils. Such fossils are not uncommon in some of the 

bench gravels of the Klamath and other rivers, but their occurrence 

in the Weaverville Basin beds is not yet certain.

At Big Bar, on Trinity River, 20 miles directly west of Weaverville, there is a mass of sandstones and shales containing beds of coal 

having a toi^al thickness of at least 100 feet and an inclination of 35°. 

No fossils were observed.

It may be assumed with great probability that all tne fluviolacustrine or estuarine deposits here considered are of essentially the 

same age. A striking feature of these deposits of the Trinity region 

is their inclination. They dip in various directions, but for the most 

part easterly, and lie far below the general level of the plateau sumi Jour. Geol., Vol. IV, 1896, p. 885.
UIU.KII.] ORIGIN OF KLAMATH AND BELLSPKING PENEPLAINS. 45

in its. In most cases their distribution associates them with, streams 

of to-day, but in some places, especially in the Weaverville belt, they 

are contiguous to no streams at the present time. If the Trinity River 

formerly followed this belt, it is evident that great changes have taken 

place in the drainage since the deposition of these beds.

The tuff found on Redding Creek, as well as that at Hay Fork and 

Hyampom, appears to be the western extension of the Tuscan tuff, 

so well developed about the borders of the northern portion of the Sacramento Valley, and furnishes a sharp lime horizon over that region, 1 

Judging from what is known of the volcanic material and the fossil 

leaves at Hyampom and Hay Fork, it is most likely that the deposits 

containing them are Miocene. Strata of essentially the same nature 

as those of Trinity County, but possibly younger, have been observed 

in Lake County and described by Dr. G. F. Becker. 2 Fresh-water 

shells, some leaves, and large bones were found, which Professor 

Marsh considered as very late Pliocene.

ORIGIN OF KLAMATH AND BELLSPKING PENEPLAINS.

That the Klamath peneplain is one of erosion there is no doubt, for 

it cuts directly across the structural features, and is equally independent of the wide range in the hardness of the rocks upon which 

it is developed, but the particular manner of the planation, whether 

subaerial or marine, and if subaerial, whether due to "peneplanation," as explained by Bavis, 3 or to other conditions, as set forth by 

Tarr, 4 Shaler, 3 and W. S. Tangier Smith, 0 may be questioned. The 

determining level of erosion in all cases was that of the adjacent ocean, 

which undoubtedly has been the sculptor of the elevated beaches so 

well developed at various levels along the narrow belt of land between 

the present shore and the elevated edge of the peneplain. The 

sharply defined terraces connected with the elevated sea beaches are 

generally capped by marine deposits. This is not always the case 

close to the landward borders, although in some cases deposits near 

the sea cliff are nearly 50 feet in thickness, with much gravel locally 

rich enough in gold to afford profitable mines. 

Sea cliffs, such as limit the marine deposits on the eastward, and 

beds of sand and gravel such as are common upon these terraces, have 

not been observed anywhere upon the Klamath peneplain. Excepting the coastal edge, where the Wymer beds'occur, it is entirely 

devoid of marine deposits, and their absence militates against the 

view that the Klamath peneplain is one of marine denudation. The 

broad expanse of the plain stretching across the range, when coni1 Fourteenth Ann. Kept. U. S. Geol. Survey, Part II, 1894, PI. XLV, pp. 414-419. 

= Mon. U. S. Geol. Survey Vol. XIII, 1888, p. 219.

3 Am. Jour. Sci., 3d series, Vol. XXXVII, 1889, p. 430.

4 The peneplain: Am. Geologist, June 1898, Vol. XXI, pp. a>l-370.

6 Bull. Geol. Soc. America, Vol. X, pp. 245-276.

"BUll. Dept. Geol. Univ. California, Vol. II, pp. 155-178.
46 TOPOGEAPHIC DEVELOPMENT 0V KLAMATH MOUNTAINS. [BULL.196.

pared with the narrow belts of the marine terraces along the coast, 

strongly emphasizes the view that the peneplain is of subaerial origin. 

This view is supported also by the character of the marine deposits 

along its border. During a later portion of the Empire epoch the 

sediments all along the coast from the Columbia River to Humboldt 

Bay were fine, such as are derived from beaches on the edge of broad 

stretches of lowland so reduced by erosion that the streams carried 

only fine sediments to the sea. Such conditions prevailed also when 

the Wymer beds were deposited. They mark the time of greatest 

development of the peneplain as a land surface in the Klamath 

Mountains, and being undisturbed in relative position as far as the 

peneplain is concerned, they mark approximately the position of the 

Miocene base-level controlling its development. \

The approximate plain which gives to the Klamath Mountains their 

plateau character may be explained by subaerial erosion with .the 

sea marking its border, but the Bellspring peneplain of the coast 

range may OAve some of its development to submarine erosion, 

although the greater part, if not the whole, is due to land streams. 

No evidence has yet been found to show that the northern portion of 

the Coast Range has been beneath the sea since the tilting of the. 

Miocene beds at the close of the Klamath peneplain stage. The 

topography of this portion of the range is gently sloped above, 

descending to steep canyons along the present large streams. Some 

of its evenness of crests may be due to subequality of interstream 

spacing, as Shaier and Smith have explained for other regions, but 

this could not have produced the flat tracts, remnants of the peneplain, which are found on some of the ridges. The rocks here are 

softer and on the whole more uniform than those of the Klamath 

Mountains, and as they erode more easily a somewhat more advanced 

stage of topographic cycle might be expected when compared with 

the Klamath Mountains, notwithstanding the fact that the latter are

a much older land surface.

The Klamath peneplain may have originally been covered by residual deposits of considerable thickness, but if so they have been 

largely removed, for the character of its surface exposures as compared with that of the earlier valleys to be noted presently is essentially the same, but is strongly contrasted with that of the later 

valleys.

Stream gravels have not been found so closely associated with the 

Klamath peneplain as to give strength to the argument regarding its 

subaerial origin, but they have been found in the earlier valleys corresponding to the Sherwood peneplain at an elevation but little below 

the Klamath peneplain in the Coast Range. By far the most important deposits of this character belong to the ancient Klamath River 

and will be noticed more particularly under the heading '' Earlier 

valleys."
DILLKK.] TOPOGRAPHIC DEVELOPMENT OF KLAMATH MOUNTAINS. 47 

AGE OF KLAMATH PENEPLAIN.

. That the sediments of the Neocene beds deposited along the seaward border of the Klaraath peneplain were derived from the Klamath 

Mountain region there can be no reasonable doubt. They record along 

period of but little relative movement of land and sea, during which 

the land suffered extensive degradation and was finally reduced 

approximately to a peneplain. That there were changes of level 

during the Neocene sufficient to record themselves in a marked 

change of sediments is clearly shoAvn by the presence of heavy beds 

of conglomerate among the sandstones and shales at Cape Blanco and 

later in the region of Humboldt Bay, but on the whole the sediments 

were derived from land areas of low declivity. The rich fauna and 

the calcareous nodules suggest the same condition.

The condition which the Wymer beds record is that of the Klamath peneplain just before it was uplifted to"initiate the plateau of 

the Klamath Mountains. The Wymer beds are purely marine sediments, resting upon the very edge of the Klamath peneplain, and now 

lie practically undisturbed, except for the uplifting to their present 

altitude of 2,200 feet. They are possibly east of the zone of greatest 

displacement connected with the final uplifting of the Klamath 

Mountains.

Beds of nearly the same relative position occur at an elevation of 

1,350 feet about the eastern limit of the Neocene beds in the vicinity 

of Bridgeville. Except where indurated by local deposits of carbonate of lime the beds are very soft and lie undisturbed east of the 

belt of greatest disturbance of the Wildcat series. According to Dr. 

Dall, call the fossils found in the Neocene strata about Bridgeville are 

Miocene species.

While it is certain that the deposition of the Wymer beds and those 

of the hills about Bridgeville occurred during the Neocene and probably in the .late Miocene, its exact geological age can not be fully 

established without further paleontological study and comparison 

with the various formations developed about San Francisco Bay and 

the adjoining portion' of the Great Valley of California. The age 

of the San Pablo beds, of which Dr. Dall has made mention, is not 

definitely known, or at any rate its fauna has not as yet been fully 

published. The tendency of the evidence throughout, as far as 

known, appears to indicate a late Miocene age for the Klamath 

peneplain, but if on further study the Wymer beds and those of the 

Hay Fork stage should turn out to be Pliocene or Pleistocene the age 

of the Klamath peneplain would be correspondingly reduced.

DISLOCATION OF MIOCENE DEPOSITS OF COAST KANGE 

AND SUBSEQUENT PLANATION.

Although there were slight variations in the relative attitude of the 

land and sea during the Miocene, as recorded in the change of sedi-
48 TOPOGRAPHIC DEVELOPMENT OF KLAMATH MOUNTAINS. [BULL. 190.

merits, there were no pronounced movements until near its close. 

The Klauuith peneplain had attained its greatest development during 

the deposition of the Wymer beds, and the period of long-continued 

relative stability was changed to one of vigorous diastrophism, which 

resulted in compressing the narrow belt of Miocene sediments of the 

coast along faults in such way as to give them a general dip northeastward. The dip of the strata is usually from 10° to 25°, but at 

Rio Dell a thick section of sandstones and shales dips 70°. These high 

dips are confined to a small portion of the southwestern border of the 

Eel River area, and the inclination is toward the northeast. The 

prevalence of northeasterly dips throughout the Mad River area, as 

well as throughout the greater part, if not the whole, of the Eel River 

mass, including that of the South Fork and the vicinity of Round 

Valley, suggests faulting. In general, the amount of disturbance in 

each area decreases northeastward, so that the greatest displacement 

appears to be limited to a comparatively narrow belt near the coast. 

Along the eastern border of the Miocene area the strata were in most 

places but little disturbed.

The dislocation of the Miocene sediments brought them up to the 

sea level, but does not appear to have raised to any considerable 

extent the Klamath Mountain region, for the plain cut upon the soft, 

tilted, Miocene beds during a relatively quiet epoch immediately succeeding the tilting accords approximately with the Klamath peneplain. The Miocene dislocation must have been accompanied to a 

large extent by the dislocation of the underlying older rocks. Being 

near the seacoast, these irregularities were vigorously attacked and 

were reduced to gentler features showing well-defined marks ofe baseleveling, but the irregularities of the upland were not all removed 

before the Bellspring stage was brought to a close by an upheaval.

OROGENIC MOVEMENT INITIATING SHERWOOD STAGE.

The uplift was differential. Near the coast there was but little 

uplifting; to the east it increased so that the crest of the range was 

raised nearly 2,000 feet, and the Klamath peneplain was warped and 

broken to a considerable extent, but not so much as to obscure the 

essential evenness of the peneplain. In like manner the Bellspring 

peneplain was somewhat affected.

The uplift at the close of the Bellspring stage initiated that of the 

Sherwood peneplain. The upturned beds of the Wildcat series Avere 

easily removed, exposing the older and harder rocks beneath. The 

plain extended inland in places under favorable circumstances for 

many miles. Near the coast, where carved upon the Wildcat series, 

the plain has an altitude at present only a few hundred feet lower 

than the Klamath peneplain at the same place. Farther east the difference in elevation between the Klamath and Sherwood peneplains 

increases, a feature which shows that the uplift closing the Klamath 

epoch was differential and greatest near the crest of the range.
DILLER.] TOPOGRAPHIC DEVELOPMENT OF KLAMATH MOUNTAINS. 49 

OROGEN1J MOVEMENT INITIATING GARBERVILLE STAGE.

The Sherwood stage was short as compared with the Bellspring and 

Klamath stages, and was brought to a close by an upheaval which 

affected the whole Klamath Mountain and Coast Range region. Although of: wide extent, the uplift Avas not great, scarcely 500 feet. 

The streams were rejuvenated and a new cycle-of erosion was initiated in the Garbervilie stage, which was sufficiently long to enable 

the streams to carve out broad valleys, especially on soft beds. The 

stream most favorably situated for widening its valley during the 

Garberville stage was the South Fork of Eel River. Across the Sherwood peneplain, which was well developed in that region, the South 

Fork cuts a broad"Valley nearly 500 feet deep, which is sharply distintinguishcd from the narrow canyon-like valley of the present river.

During the Sherwood and Garberville stages the rivers developed 

broad valleys, which are in strong contrast with the canyons in which

the same rivers now flow, and, to facilitate the consideration of the 

broader river valleys which are above and older than the canyons, 

they are grouped together under the general designation "Earlier 

valleys," while the canyons are the "Later valleys."

EARLIER VALLEYS.

The lines of drainage during the development of the Klamath and 

Bellspring peneplains, the changes introduced by the subsequent

Fio. 7. Suction showing relation of earlier valleys to Klamath peneplain and .later valleys.

uplifts, as well as the progressive changes in adjustment as the topographic cycles advanced after each change of level, furnish a most 

inviting field for investigation, but these can not be satisfactorily 

worked out and described without much more detailed topographic 

surveys.

The term "earlier valleys" is used to embrace especially those corresponding to the Sherwood and Garberville stages. They generally form a marked feature of the upland, but the valleys of these 

two stages can rarely be clearly distinguished. The general relations

Bull. l!Mi 02 4
50 TOPOGBAPHIC DEVELOPMENT OF KLAMATH MOUNTAINS. [BULL. 196.

of the earlier valleys (1) to the Klamath peneplain (2) above and the 

later valleys or canyons (3) below is shown in fig. 7.

It should be understood, however, that the gentle features of the 

earlier valleys are not all of the same age. They have their terraces 

at various elevations, often due to local obstructions or minor oscillations, but as a whole they may be taken as marking a long time or 

long times of relative stability, especially the Sherwood and Garberville 

stages, permitting the development of wide valleys with gentle features. Nearer the sea, and in some measure under its influence, the 

Sherwood peneplain was formed. At a much later stage the 1,000-foot 

terrace was developed, and it marks, approximately, the levels upon 

whicli the Ararious earlier valleys terminate.

EARLIER VALLEY OF UMPQUA RIVER.

From Coles Valley the Umpqua flows along the eastern foot of the 

Coast Range to the sea in an extremely winding course, a feature 

which it appears to have acquired during the final stage of the development of the Klamath peneplain. This serpentine course was preserved during the cutting of the earlier valley as well as the later. 

The earlier valley of the Umpqua is well marked only across the 

Coast Range, where it is preserved in the massive sandstone. Eastward, in the Roseburg region, the beds are softer and the ancient 

records have been largely destroyed.

Near Tyee Mountain, where the river enters the comparatively hard 

rocks of the range, the earlier valley is not so extensively developed 

as it is farther northwest. From the hills southeast of Elkton, where 

the river turns directly west to the sea, the plain of the earlier valley 

has a width of at least 6 miles and is very uniform at an elevation of 

nearly 1,300 feet. Its sides are seen in the distance and are not conspicuous. They are rather irregular, as if in the uplifting or subsequent erosion the older Klamath peneplain had been modified. The 

best general view of the earlier A^alley of the Umpqua, and especially 

of its relation to the late valley, may be obtained from a summit 1 

mile west of Scottsburg at an altitude of 1,210 feet. The floor of the 

6ld valley is remarkably even, although cut across hard and soft 

rocks inclined at a considerable angle, and is in strong contrast with 

the later valley, which is, in general, a narrow canyon over 1,000 feet 

deep. The earlier valley is rather densely wooded, and the settlers 

along the river are confined almost exclusively to the narrow alluvial 

plains by the river in the canyon of the later valley.

EARLIER. VALLEYS OF COOS AND COQUILLE RIVERS.

The soft rocks in the Coos Bay region have not preserved the 

ancient landmarks near the coast, but 15 or 20 miles back from the 

coast earlier valleys, both of the Coos and of the Coquille, may be 

found at an -elevation of 1,500 feet. Farther east these old valleys
EARLIEE VALLEYS. 51

rise; that of the East Fork of the Coquille at Lairds has an altitude 

of over 2,000 feet and affords a fine view of the adjacent edges of the 

Klamath peneplain,

EARLIER VALLEYS OF SIXES AND ELK RIVERS.

South of the Coquille the rocks of the irregular complex below the 

Eocene come to the surface, giving rise to greater irregularity in the 

topographic features.

On Sixes River the earlier valley was well developed not only along 

the main stream but also along the principal forks. From a sharp crest 

northeast of the trail crossing from Sixes to the mouth of Edson Creek 

a fine view up the old valley of the Sixes may be obtained at an 

altitude of about a thousand feet. Farther west, a little below this 

level, on both sides of the river there is au extensive terrace capped 

by the highest marine sands noted in the region. The earlier valley 

ends in this terrace, suggesting that the two are contemporaneous, 

but it seems more probable, from facts considered elsewhere, that the 

terrace is much younger than the "earlier valley."

Farther up the Sixes the early valley bottom near Elephant Rock 

lias an altitude of 1,200 feet. Looking toward Eckley from Elephant 

Kock one of the finest views of this old valley may be obtained. 

Opposite Mount Avery it has a depth of nearly a thousand feet below 

the level of the peneplain.

The broader valley about Eckley is due to the basin of softer 

Eocene sediments. On the South Fork of the Sixes, between Mount 

Butler and Mount Avery. the old valley at an altitude of 2,000 feet is 

shallow, being but a feAv hundred feet below the general level of the 

peneplain. Here the abrupt change of slope to the canyon of the late 

valley, 1,500 feet deep, is conspicuous. Farther east, about the headwaters of this stream, the plain of the early valley is much wider, with, 

gentle slopes to the level of the peneplain.

On Elk River a few miles south of the Sixes the conditions are 

much the same, but the early valley is not so well preserved, chiefly 

on account of the large number of landslides, due in part, apparently, 

to the killing of the timber by forest fires. All the timber for many 

square miles has been killed.

EARLIER VALLEY OF ROGUE RIVER.

From the south of Bald Brushy Mountain and First Prairie Mountain a good view can be obtained of the earlier valley of Rogue River. 

On the south bank of the river, a few miles above the mouth of Silver 

Creek, is a flat-topped hill, a portion of the old valley bottom, having 

an estimated elevation of nearly 2,000 feet. On both sides the valley 

has a gentle slope rising from that elevation and marking the general 

outline of the earlier valley, in strong contrast with the canyon below. 

The earlier valley of Rogue River, although larger, is less sharply 

marked than that of the Sixes.
52 TOPOGRAPHIC DEVELOPMENT OF KLAMATH MOUNTAINS. [BULL. 196. 

EARLIER VALLEY OF KLAMATH RIVER.

Between Rogue River and the Klamath, Pistol River and Chetco 

River in Oregon, and Smith River in California, are the only streams 

of considerable size, and they all show traces of wide valleys above 

the newer canyons in which the rivers are now flowing.

Klamath River, heading east of the mountain belt on the low border 

of the Great Basin, breaks through the Cascade and Coast ranges to 

the sea. ,The Klamath peneplain crosses the range between the 

Siskiyon Mountains and the rugged peaks about the head of Salmon 

River, and at this point is traversed by Klamath River, whose earlier 

vallej^ is well marked in places, as, for example, near Happy Camp, 

where the even crests of the spurs and ridges adjoining the canyon 

are clearly observable. As one ascends to get a general view the 

evenness of the hills becomes more pronounced, and it is apparent 

that here, as on the Uinpqna, there is a wide old valley of the river 

above the canyon in which it now flows. One of the best points from 

which to view this feature, in the region noted above, is about 2£ 

miles S. 40° W. of Happy Camp, from a point on the north bank 

of the river, at an elevation of 3,800 feet above the sea or 2,000 above 

the river. Looking east up the earlier valley of the Klamath, one 

sees that its limits are marked by the bordering uplands, where traces 

of the Klamath peneplain may be clearly seen. The earlier valley is 

wide at this point, where it traverses rather soft shales and schists 

in which the late valley (canyon) also widens, and affords benches 

for mining and agriculture.

Down the river the earlier valley of the Klamath is well marked 

above the mouth of Salmon River at an altitude of about 4,200 

feet. The altitude of the valley at Happy Camp, about 60 miles 

farther up the Klamath and somewhat farther east, is only 3,800

feet. It is possible that the observations were not made upon levels

of the same age, but although attention was given to the matter 

at the time, no difference of age could be made out. If this is the 

case, as seems probable, an interesting conclusion may be drawn 

from their present relative altitudes. The valley level observed near 

the Salmon at the time of its origin must have been below that of the 

one near Happy Camp, but as it is now higher the Salmon region 

must have experienced greater uplift than that at Happy Camp. 

This differential uplifting accounts, in a measure at least, for the 

prominence of the Klamath Canyon of the Salmon region.

The same valley was seen again from the northern portion of the 

Hoopa Indian Reservation between Pine Creek and Trinity River 

upon a flat-topped mountain. At this point the ancient gravel bed 

of the earlier valley of the Klamath where entered by the Trinity is 

remarkably well preserved at an elevation of 3,000 feet (about 2,850 

feet above Hoopa Valley), and may be traced along the even crest of 

an adjacent ridge directly to the coast at Gold Bluff. The Govern-
U R. GEOLOGICAL SURVEV 

WILDGRASS RIDGE, CAPPED BY GRAVEL BED OF THE A

Looking N. 75° W., from near north line of Hoopa R
OLD VALLEYS. 53

ment road to the north end of the reservation is upon this old stream 

bed for nearly a mile. The gravel is well rounded and many of the 

pebbles are as large as 4 inches in diameter. The gravel rests upon 

slates, which form a prominent hill between Hoopa Valley and Klamath 

River. From this ancient stream bed the gentle slopes of the old 

valleys rise to the peneplain

Only the surface of the gravel deposit was seen, so that no definite 

idea of its thickness and structure could be obtained. Its position 

too, so near the junction of the two rivers, raises doubt as to whether 

it is really a bit of the old Klamath River bed or belongs to the Trinity, 

but this is of small moment, for being practically at the junction it 

may be used in determining; the ancient level of both streams. Both 

streams had corresponding earlier valleys merging at this point.

From this point the divide west of Klamath River to the coast at 

Gold Bluff is capped by gravel and marks the ancient bed of the 

Klamath. It was then approximately parallel to its present course,

almost directly northwest from the Hoopa Reservation. The writer 

did not follow it all the way, but has been informed by a number of 

miners that the deposit is continuous. Along Prairie Creek by the 

coast road, opposite Gold Bluff, it is exposed upon the flat summit at 

an altitude of nearly 700 feet.

The Gold Bluff beach has long been celebrated for its rich auriferous sand and gravels, and affords fine exposures of the associated 

rocks. The oldest is an altered shale containing calcite in blotches 

and streaks and quartz in short veinlets.

Resting 1 on the shale, which is about 500 feet thick, is gravel, and it extends to 

the top of the mountain, some 2.000 feet above sea level. Immediately below 

Butler Creek the black shale disappears below the siirface and on it lies a bed of 

very crumbly gray sandstone 150 to 200 feet thick, a vein of lignite 6 inches thick, 

and soft, gray, clay shale 80 feet thick- The whole dips 80° S. Nonconformably 

upon these beds lies the gravel, dipping 15° S. for a short distance, and then 

assuming a horizontal position. Near the bottom it is slightly cemented, while 

higher iip it is not. The gravel bluffs stand nearly perpendicularly and are from 

100 feet to 175 feet high. Going south along the beach 1$ miles the bluffs grad- 

.ually change. The gravel becomes finer and the percentage of sand increases. 

Bands of soft gray sandstone appear and grow thicker as we go south. Above 

the buildings of the Pioneer mine a section shows from the bottom upward as

follows:

Feet.

Gravel, slightly cemented............................................ ...... 10

Very soft blue sandstone.............. ......-....-.. .----_............... 15

Gravel, slightly cemented.................................................. 30

Very soft blue sandstone.................................................... 10

Small gravel and sand.................-..-..,--........................_... 85

The bluff maintains the same character 34- miles down the coast, to a small lagoon, 

where the works of the Union mine are located. Below the lagoon for three-fourths 

mile th-3 bottom stratum of clay shale is visible, carrying here and there pieces of

1 State Mining Bureau of California, Thirteenth Report of the State Mineralogist, p. 172.
54 TOPOGRAPHIC DEVELOPMENT OF KLAMATH MOUNTAINS. [BULL. 196.

lignite and nodules of lirnonite. The bluffs are low, 10 to 60 feet, and dip 20° SW., 

or into the ocean.

There can be no question that these gravels are derived from the 

ancient bed of Klamath River, but near the coast they may have been 

worked over and dropped to lower terraces. ,So far as the writer is 

aware, fossils have not been found at Gold Bluff, either in the gravels 

or in the unconformably underlying beds containing carbonaceous 

material tilted at a high angle. Judging from their position and 

composition, it is probable that the strata underlying the stream 

gravels are of Miocene age.

Looking a little north of-west from the road near the northern 

boundary of the Hoopa Reservation, one sees Wildgrass Ridge (see 

PI. XII), which is capped by the old channel of the Klamath. It 

appears to be somewhat higher than the reservation gravels, and may 

have been elevated by a fault which turned Klamath River along its 

eastern base.

EARLIER VALLEYS OF REDWOOD CREEK AND MAD RIVER.

Crossing the divide west of Hoopa Valley to Bairs, traces of gravel 

in the bed of the early valley of Redwood Creek were found at an 

elevation of 2,550 feet and nearly 2,000 feet above the stream. The 

early valley is marked also farther northeast, where crossed by the 

Hoopa wagon road, as illustrated in PL XIII.

Fog and smoke greatly interfered with general views, and especially 

with those of the Mad River country. Nevertheless, its exceptional 

character was discernible. Seen from the Hoqpa road, between Korbel 

and Acorn, there are terraces in the earlier valley of Mad River.-at an 

elevation of 1,600 feet, although a well-developed old valley with rather 

flat bottom 3 or 4 miles in width is marked by an elevation" of nearly 

a thousand feet.

Just above the town of Bine Lake the North l?ork enters Mad River

and the broad lowland is limited by bluffs exposing tilted beds of sand 

locaHyirich in fossils. Ascending to the summits of these hills, one 

finds them to have flat tops which rise to an altitude of about 800 feet 

above the sea, and which form the bottom of an ancient valley of Mad 

River a number of miles wide. The soft fossiliferous beds extend up 

the old valley at least 6 miles and afford an explanation of the development of a broad valley at a much lower level than the valleys of the 

streams already noted. The earlier valley of Mad River, corresponding to those here considered, is marked on the Hoopa road at an elevation of 1,600 feet. The Aralley at 800 feet is of later date and connects 

with a broad terrace along the lower course of Mad River. The preservation of these soft beds is due, in part at least, to the fact that by

some accident Mad River Avas turned onto the older and harder rocks, / '

in which it now occupies a canyon along the southern edge of the 

valley at the 800-foot level.
U. 8. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

EARLIER VALLEY OF REDWOOD CREEK ABOVE RE

Elevation 3,050 feet.
DJLLBB.] . OLD VALLEYS. 55 

EARLIER VALLEY OF EEL RIVER.

Eel River is next to the Klamath in size among those in northwestern California, and the history of its struggles in developing its present valley would form a most interesting chapter, but for the present 

only a few of the features will be noticed. Like Mad River, Eel River 

lias its lower course in a thick series of soft sediments deposited along 

the edge of the Klamath peneplain during its development. In. the 

case of Eel River, however, remnants of the earlier valley are still 

preserved in the soft beds of the Wildcat series which occur in the 

Mat-topped hills on the western slope of Bear Ridge, at an altitude 

of about 1,000 feet. The valley was so filled Avith smoke during the 

writer's visit that a satisfactory view of its form from Bear Ridge could 

not be obtained. While the 1,000-foot level was well marked in 

places with terraces of the soft beds rising even to 2,000 feet, the general distribution of the 1,000-foot level along'that part of Eel River 

could not be as completely determined as was desired. The divide 

between Rio Dell and Hydesville bears a well-marked plain cut on 

highly inclined strata, rising about 850 feet above sea level. Near the 

coast the plain descends to 700 feet as a well-marked terrace. This 

is evidently the plain corresponding to the one so Avell marked on the 

soft beds of Mad River opposite Korbel.

The valley of Eel River was crossed about 50 miles above its mouth, 

between Blocksburg and Harris, where the earlier valley is not so 

well marked in contrast with the late one. At this point the river is 

crossed by a bridge in a canyon only a few hundred, feet deep. The 

river at the bridge is only about 500 feet above tide, and above a relatively small canyon the sides of the A^illey are rather gentle. Farther upstream they become much steeper, and the valley becomes 

canyonlike to an altitude above the riA7 er of approximately a thousand feet. Along the road leading northwestward, at an altitude of 

1,500 feet an ancient valley level is marked.

Farther upstream Eel River was crossed twice on the road from Ukiah 

to Laytonville by Avay of Covelo. At Eden Valley and Round Valley 

on this route there are several local leArels of Avide extent about 500 feet 

apart. Their development may indicate the presence of a large mass 

of soft Miocene rocks, remnants of which have already been noted as 

occurring on Salt Creek and along the western border of Round Valley. Eel River at the ferry on the Eden Valley road is 725 feet beloAv 

Round Valley and has an eleA^ation of 1,450 feet above sea level. It 

flows in a valley with slopes becoming steeper farther downstream, 

where it is crossed by the road to Laytonville. Near the last crossing the earlier and later vallej7 s are Avell marked. The later A^alley 

has slopes of 41° and is 1,000 feet deep, while above them the slopes 

decline to 11° and the relief features become much less bold.

On the South Fork of Eel River there is a great development of soft 

Tertiary strata Avhich have been leveled to the Sherwood peneplain.
56 TOPOGBAPHIC DEVELOPMENT OF KLAMATH MOUNTAINS. [HULL,. 190.

Across this plain there was cut, with more or less distinctness, a broad 

valley before the nplift which resulted in the cutting of the present 

narrow stream valley. As the earlier valley was seen from the 

Garberville road on the way to Shelter Cove, the stage of development 

has been called the Garberville stage.

EARLIER VALLEYS OF RUSSIAN RIVER AND CACHE CREEK.

Beyond this point Eel River was not crossed again, and at the crossing of Russian River and Cache Creek the earlier valleys were not 

especially noted. .In ascending Bartlett Mountain, however, from 

Upper Lake a well-developed terrace was found at from 3,000 to 4,000 

feet, about ],600 feet above Upper Lake, post-office.

EARLIER VALLEY OF STONY CREEK.

Prominent traces of the earlier valleys, such as are found along the 

rivers of the western slope of the Klamath Mountains, would hardly 

be expected along the small streams of the eastern slope, and yet in 

places there are broad plains recording an important valley stage 

between the completion of the Klamath peneplain and the present 

time. These are clearly due to soft rocks shales for on the harder 

rocks sandstones and conglomerates along the same streams the 

plain is not developed. The most important plain of this nature is 

along Stony Creek, in the southwestern part of Glenn County. About 

the town of Elk Creek, Avkere Elk, Bristo, and Grindstone creeks 

enter Stony Creek, there is a broad plain extending from Elk Creek 

Ridge to the base of the Coast Range and having an altitude of about 

850 feet above the sea. This plain maybe seen to advantage from 

the slope of Elk Creek Ridge, looking north. On the left is the Coast 

Range and on the right are the even-crested hills of Stony Creek 

which mark the Klamath peneplain. The streams from the mountains cut canyons across the Stony Creek plain to the depth of 100 

feet, but Stony Creek, a larger stream, has developed broad flood 

plains about 50 feet below the general level of the plain.

Ten miles north of the town of Elk Creek Stony Creek enters the 

even-crested foothills capped by the Klamath peneplain and cuts a 

canyon through them to the alluvial plain of the Sacramento. Farther northward, near Newville, on the same belt of shales, a plain 

corresponding to that of Elk Creek has been developed. The large 

size and sharpness of these plains indicate that they most likely 

record an attitude of the land and are probably not due to a level of 

local obstruction in the canyon of Stony Creek. On the divide at 

Millsaps between Elk Creek and Newville is a remarkable terrace 

which lies between the two plains. Earlier and later valleys of small 

depths have been seen on Thomas Creek, in Tehaina County, but 

farther northward they have not been clearly distinguished.
 OKOGENIC MOVEMENTS. 57 

SUBSIDENCE AND EARLIER VALLEY FILLING.

It is evident that to fill the old valleys with deposits which are 

estuarine, at least as far inland as I Fay Fork, where sharks' teeth 

were found, as noted under "Fluvio-estuarine deposits of Trinity 

drainage" (p. 43), there must have been a subsidence. Hay Fork lies 

100 miles from the mouth of the Klamath, but scarcely a score of 

miles from the crest of the range where crossed by the stage road to 

the Sacramento Valley. Streams were ponded by the subsidence, and 

swampy conditions prevailed to preserve the carbonaceous material 

for the coal beds found at so many points in these deposits, and this 

condition, with, fluctuations, must have obtained for a considerable 

interval, allowing the old valleys, as that of Weaverville 'Basin, to fill 

to great depths.

UPLIFT ANT) DISPLACEMENT CLOSING EARLIER VALLEY

STAGE.

The earlier valley epoch was brought to a close by an epeirogenic 

uplift of approximately 900 feet all along the coast of the Klamath 

Mountains, but increasing eastward to a number of times that amount 

along the crest of the range. It is possible that during uplift the 

fluvio-estuarine deposits of the earlier valleys were displaced, for in 

most localities they dip at considerable angles and lie in deep valleys. 

How much of this depth is due to faulting and how much to earlier 

stream cutting is not known. The fact that the widest portions of 

valleys are carved out of these soft disturbed strata indicates that 

the valley enlargement is due to the soft strata and that the canyon 

cutting in the older rock is of later date. By the disturbance which 

tilted the fluvio-estuarine deposits the streams in many places were 

turned from their old channels and, as the uplifting progressed, cut 

valleys in new places, while elsewhere they swept the Miocene deposits from the older valleys. This recarving of the old valleys and new 

canyons Avas largely accomplished before the Glacial epoch, as is 

shown by their relation to glaciated areas.

POST-MIOCENE ELEVATION.

The unconformity at Cape Blanco (PL IX and fig. 4) indicates a 

post-Miocene surface of erosion extending below sea level. The age 

of the overlying beds (No. G, fig. 4) is now regarded as Pleistocene, 

allowing the break to represent a considerable time interval. The 

absence of the Pliocene at that point indicates that it 31:1 ay have been 

above the sea during that epoch.

At Crescent City essentially the same unconformity is visible, but 

is much more definite in its time relations. According to Dr. Ball 

and my observations are in complete accord with his the Pliocene 

of Battery Point rests directly and with a marked unconformity
58 TOPOGRAPHIC DEVELOPMENT OF KLAMATH MOUNTAINS. [BULL. 196.

upon sandstones which are possibly Mesozoic. Although Miocene 

is well developed a short distance farther up the coast, it was completely removed at this point before the deposition of the Pliocene, 

indicating an epoch of elevation and erosion between the Miocene 

and Pliocene. The extent of the erosion during this interval is 

unknown, but, as already pointed out by Le Conte, 1 there are 

indications of submarine valleys extending seaward from the present 

coast to the continental border, 2 and it is possible that they were cut 

at this time.

GJjACIATIOX OF [LATER "VAIXEYS.

The later valleys, as already noted, are often canyon-like, especially 

near the valley bottom and the coast. Toward the headwaters the 

valleys are generally shallower and more open, and have an aspect of 

greater age than the portion near the coast, and yet their difference 

in age is probably so small as to be scarcely measurable in geologic 

time.

Tracing the larger streams up into the Siskiyous, the Yallo Ballys, 

or the rugged peaks about the head of Salmon and Trinity rivers, one 

finds the valleys to be glaciated to an unexpectedly large extent. On 

the northeast slopes of both North and South Yallo Bally Mountains, 

near the line between Tehama and Trinity counties, Cal., there were 

formerly glaciers a number of miles in extent which have left welldefined records in striated and polished rocks and ground moraines, 

with small lakes and meadows above terminal embankments. These 

ancient glaciers are represented to-day by large snowbanks, resulting 

from the protection which the mountains afford against the driving 

southwest winds of the winter storms.

Important ancient glaciers among the mountains about the head of 

Salmon and Trinity rivers have been noted by Mr. Oscar H. Hershey. 3 

The largest of these Swift Creek Glacier is described as follows:

At its maximum extension this glacier had a length of not less than 15 miles, a 

width of i to 1 mile, and a depth of 1,000 to 1,500 feet. It was the largest single 

mass of ice, so far as I know, of the Sierra Costa Mountains. It headed among 

the peaks in the highest portion of this range, at an altitude now about 6,500 feet, 

trended in a northeasterly direction, forming the broad flat of the Mumford 

Meadows (altitude 5,500 feet), then ran southeasterly, descending rapidly to a 

level now little more than 3,500 feet above the sea, where at 10 miles from its 

head it suddenly issued from the high mountains and. turning to the northeast, 

deployed upon and across a broad basin valley of Miocene age and later,4 and 

terminated very close to the site of the Redding and Trinity Center road, at an 

elevation now no greater than 2,500 feet above the sea.

1 Bull. Geol. Soc. America, Vol. II, p. 325.

2 Lawsoii (Bull. Dept. G-eol. Univ. California, Vol. I, pp. 57-59) regards these as duo to faulting, 

and not to erosion.

a Jour. Geol., Vol. VIII, 1900, pp. 42-57. 

4 This valley is the northeastern extension of the Weaverville Basin (see page 44).
DTLLBB.] SUBSIDENCE. 59

The amount of erosion which has taken place in the glaciated region, 

not only in the Klamath Mountains, but also at many other points in 

Oregon and California, since the ice disappeared, is very small, so that 

the glaciation of that region has been relegated generally to a ]ate 

portion of the Glacial epoch.

. The bearing of this glaciation upon the age of the younger valleys 

is direct, and indicates that the river valleys were cut out almost to 

their present extent at least as early as the later portion of the Glacial 

epoch.

There is another bit of evidence bearing upon the age of these later 

valleys which should be mentioned. On the North Fork of Coquille 

River, 3 miles northeast of Myrtle Point, Coos County, Oreg., a fragment of a mastodon's tusk was found buried in alluvium close to bed 

rock within 5 feet of the river. According to Mr. Lucas, the piece of 

tusk is of a form having a peculiar enamel band, and is probably of 

Pliocene age. Other bones have been found in the same locality, and

it is the opinion of the writer, who examined the deposit, that the 

bones have not been transported far from their original deposit. The 

tnsk gives rise to a suggestion that even the later valleys were practically completed in Pliocene time.

SUBSIDENCE AJjOlSrG OREGON COAST.

Concerning the oscillations and subsidence after the continental 

border stage and the reelevation during the marine terrace stage 

enough has been said in the brief summary at the beginning of the 

paper, but concerning the subsidence along the coast of Oregon more 

facts should be given.

Tide water runs up Rogue River about 4 miles from its mouth, and 

to about the same extent in all the important rivers south of it at 

least as far as Cape Mendocino, but in the opposite direction the relation of river to tide level is very different. In Coquille River the tide 

runs up to the mouth of the North Fork, a distance of over 30 miles. 

Formerly it ran up farther, but by aggradation the stream lias shortened the tide run by nearly 4 miles. In Coos River the tide ascends 

nearly the same distance. In the Umpqua it goes up at least 25 miles, 

to Scottsburg, penetrating much farther into the Coast Range at that 

point than anywhere else south of Columbia River, where it goes up 

to Cascade Locks, a distance of 150 miles from its mouth. In the 

smaller streams between the Umpqua and Columbia the ascent, 

which is less extensive chiefly on account of the smaller size of the 

streams, being in all cases roughly proportional to the erosive power 

of the stream, is as follows: Nehalem, 13 miles; Tillamook, 7 .miles; 

Nestugga, 7 miles; Little Nestngga, 8 miles; Siletz, 21 miles; Yaquina, 

28 miles; Alsea, 14 miles; Siuslaw, north fork, 11 miles; Siuslaw, main 

stream, 28 miles.
60 TOPOGRAPHIC DEVELOPMENT OF KLAMATH MOUNTAINS. [BULL.196.

This tidal transgression has been, regarded as indicating that the 

coast has subsided. That such is the case is shown also by the fact that 

the rocky beds of the stream are now far below tide level. Borings 

have been made on the borders of Isthmus and Kerituck sloughs, and 

the slough muds were found to extend down at least 200 feet below 

tide possibly much farther indicating that at some former epoch 

that part of the country stood at a higher level than at present, 

enabling the streams to cut out the portion of the valley which is now 

submerged. The extent of this subsidence is not definitely known.

RELATION OF KLAMATH PENEPLAIN TO THAT OF SIERRA 

NEVADA A]ND COAST RANGE.

On the eastern side of the Sacramento Valley lies the Sierra Nevada, 

whose long, gentle slope to the valley presents a remarkable plain of 

erosion. Much has been written concerning this feature, but one of 

the latest and most noteworthy contributions is by Mr. Lindgren, 1 

who recognizes in it two plains of erosion, the one which is most complete consummated just before the deposition of the Chico 2 (Cretaceous), the other during the Miocene. Mr. Lindgren says: 3

The relation of the two eroded surfaces, the Cretaceous and the Miocene, is 

clearly discernible from any point in the lower foothills looking up toward the 

sximmit of the range. Above the deep canyons of the modern gorges extend the 

broad, flat lava plateaus, capping the separating ridges and looking very much 

like an old base-level. These lava flows cover the comparatively gentle topography 

of the Miocene valleys. Above them rise the peaks and ridges just mentioned, 

and indicate with their level sky line the extent of a far older eroded surface 

uplifted and dissected long before the auriferous gravels were deposited or the 

lava flows extruded.

The Cretaceous age of the earlier plain pointed out by Lindgren 

finds support in the character of the Cretaceous sediments of the Sacramento Valley. On the western side of that valley the Lower Cretaceous beds are mostly fine shales with calcareous nodules and are of 

great thickness, indicating a wide range of low land as their source. 

During the Chico, which immediately followed, there was an epoch 

of marine transgression and possibly greater land declivity, for near 

the base of that series is a heavy conglomerate which can be traced 

for many miles about the borders of the Sacramento Valley. The 

final sediments of the Chico were such as to indicate low relief.

The condition of the Klamath Mountain region during the progress 

of the Cretaceous is not yet fully understood, owing to the fragmentary nature both of the Cretaceous deposits and of our knowledge 

of them. However, the known distribution of the Cretaceous rocks 

among the Klamath Mountains, taken together with the border of 

Cretaceous sediments which may be traced almost continuously 

around them, indicates that during a late part of the Cretaceous

1 Jour. Geol., Vol. IV, 189C. p. 881. '- Idem, p. 894. 3Idem, p. 897.
DJLLER.] BELATION OF KLAMATH MOUNTAINS TO COAST EANGE. 61

the Klamath Mountain region was largely, if not wholly, submerged. 

This conclusion is sufficient to show that if a Cretaceous peneplain 

is found anywhere in the Klamath Mountains it must be limited to 

the summits of the high peaks.

On the other hand, it appears very probable that the Klamath peneplain corresponds to the Miocene plain 1 of the Sierra Nevada. The 

Miocene age of each plain appears to be fairly established by paleontologic evidence, and their continuity is suggested not only by their 

juxtaposition but by their fossil flora. Differences in amount and 

character of deformation, hardness of rocks, climatic conditions, nearness to the sea, and probably also time of elevation may be cited 

to account for differences in stage of topographic development since 

since the peneplain was uplifted.

.RELATION OF TOPOGRAPHY OF KLAMATH MOUNTAINS 

AND COAST RANGE.

The topography of the northern end of the Coast Range may be said 

to be mature. But this is true only on account of the gentle relief above 

the canyons. The same is true of the topography of the adjacent 

Klamath Mountains, and yet the cycle appears somewhat less advanced 

and the canyon stage more profound than in the Coast Range. This 

difference may be attributed to 

1. Differences of composition. The Coast Range is composed chiefly 

of Mesozoic sandstones and slates, but among these are numerous 

though generally small masses of a basaltic intrusive and chert, as 

well as glaucophane and other very local schists. The rocks, for 

the most part, have been crushed to small fragments, and are therefore 

comparatively easily eroded. They were once capped by Neocene 

sediments of still greater softness, and they played an important role 

in the early cycles of the Coast Range. On the other hand, the 

Klamath Mountains are composed of m uch older rocks. Large masses 

of schists- and slates, with some limestones and igneOus rocks, such 

as peridotite, serpentine, gabbro, and diorite and allied forms, are 

abundant and cover large areas. These rocks are in general much 

harder than those of the Coast Range, and it would not be expected 

1 hat the topographic development would be so far advanced.

2. The position of the terranes with reference to the direction of 

drainage has much to do in determining the degree of relief. In the 

Coast Range the drainage is largely parallel to the strike of the f ormations. Wherever the streams cut across the strike they flow in more 

prominent canyons. In the case of the Klamath River, especially 

the part from the mouth of the Trinity to Happy Camp and beyond 

is across the schistose structure, a feature which contributes no small 

amount to the boldness of the scenery.

1 Tertiary revolution in the topography of the Pacific coast: Fourteenth Ann. Rept. U. S. Geoi. 

Survey, Pt. II, 1894, pp. 397-434.
62 TOPOGRAPHIC DEVELOPMENT OF KLAMATH MOUNTAINS. [BULL. 196.

3. The differential uplifting, always in favor of the crest of the 

range, across which the Klamath River has long continued to cut its 

way, has given the Klamath River and headwaters of other streams 

relatively not only much greater cutting power, so far as grade is concerned, but a larger amount of work to do, and for this reason their 

canyons are more profound and the topographic cycle is less advanced 

than in the Coast Range, where the streams, having greater volume, 

reduced the country more rapidly.

Notwithstanding minor differences, the topographic continuity of 

the Coast Range and Klamath Mountains is pronounced. Of the two 

the Klamath Mountains are the older, although in a measure, for 

reasons given above, less advanced in the cycle of erosion than the 

Coast Range.
SUPPLEMENT.

NOTES ON THE GEOLOGIC AGE OF SOME OF THE .ROCKS OF THE. 

KLAMATH MOUNTAINS,

The Klamath Mountains were early recognized by the Geological 

Survey of California 1 as composed of rocks essentially the same as 

those of the Sierra Nevada, and definite horizon determinations began 

in the eastern extension of the group in Shasta County with the Carboniferous. H. W. Fairbanks, 2 Charles Schuchert, 3 and others, 4 but 

more especially J. P. Smith,.5 greatly extended the recognition of 

definite horizons in the same region, but the higher portions of the 

group in Trinity County have received less attention. Concerning 

that district, however, we have a comprehensive paper by Mr. 0. H. 

Hershey," who has kindly supplemented it by furnishing me a manuscript copy of his preliminary map of this region, based on the Pnnnett Brothers' sectional map of Trinity and bordering counties. The 

oldest formations recognized are a series of mica- and hornblendeschists, which are succeeded by a mass of slates, in part radiolarian, 

and limestones, all of which are more or less intimately related to a 

wide range of plutonic and volcanic rocks.

The oldest fossiliferous rocks 7 yet recognized in the .region are 

Devonian, and have been found in a belt at the eastern base of, and 

in, the Scott Mountains west of Gazelle, Cal. The belt extends southward more or less continuously by the well-known. Kennett locality 

to the northern end of the Sacramento Valley near Horsetown. 

Northward from Gazelle they have not certainly been recognized. 

In a limestone 3 miles northeast of Kerby, Josephine County, Oreg., 

a number of fossils were discovered, but their affinities could not be 

definitely determined.

West of this belt Devonian rocks have not been recognized with 

certainty, so far as the writer is aware, unless it be at Three Creeks, 

on the road to Hoopa Valley, in Humboldt County. These are, however, nearly in line with the supposed Juratrias limestones southeast 

of Hyampom.

1 Geol. Survey California, Vol. I.

- Bull. Geol. Soc. America, Vol. VI, p. 71.

a Am. Jour. Sci., 3d series, Vol. XLVII, p. 416.

 " Fourteenth Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. Survey, Pt. II, 189*, PI. XLV.

6 Jour. Geol., Vol. II, 1894, p. 588.

o Am. Geologist, April, 1901, Vol. XXVII, p. 225.

7 The Silurian of the Sierra Nevada in the Taylorville region has not yet been discovered in 

the Klamath Mountains. (Bull. Geol. Soc. America, Vol. Ill, p. 37C.)

63
64 TOPOGRAPHIC DEVELOPMENT OF KLAMATH MOUNTAINS. [BULL. MB.

Mr. Hershey submitted some fossils from Pattersons, on New River, 

which Dr. Girty regards as belonging to the Carboniferous on account 

of their relation to other and more characteristic fossils found in the 

Hay Fork region. They are in line with a portion of considerable 

collections made for the writer last spring in Trinity County by Mr. 

James Storrs. A belt of lenticular limestone masses having the same* 

general northwest-southeast strike is well exposed a few miles east of 

Hay Fork, and has been traced for many miles, stretching more or 

less continuously from near Knob post-office to Pattersons. Fossils 

were collected at five points along this line, and concerning them Dr. 

Girty remarks that '' the fauna is characterized by the presence of 

Fusidina and strongly indicates the geological horizon to be Upper 

Carboniferous. Besides a number of corals, there is a pentagonal 

crinoid stem suggestive of P&ntacrinus, and a small organism, probably an alga, which occurs in nearly all the localities and is very 

abundant a few miles southeast of the village of Hay Fork."

Another belt of limestone, the exposures of which are more or less 

interrupted, has been traced by Mr. Storrs from North Yallo Bally to 

H}7 ampoin along the eastern slope of the South Fork of Trinity River 

in Humholdt County. These have yielded fossils at a number of 

points, among which corals, Pentacrinus 9, an echinoid, and two gasteropocls have been recognized, but not identified specifically, by 

Dr. Stanton, who refers them, apparently with some doubt, to the 

Juratrias.

In the region of Shasta County, extending north and northeast from 

French Gulch, as far at least as Slatonis, there is a great development 

of dark slates in which occur local conglomerates. Mr. Storrs collected a large number of fossils, and most of them were obtained from 

small masses of limestone in the conglomerates. These were referred 

to Mr. Charles Schuchert, of the National Museum, who reports as 

follows:

Localities Nos. 5971 [between Tower House and French GKilch]. 4, 7,10, 11,13, 

15, 29, 30, and 31 [on Sacramento River, between Morley and Portuguese Flat] 

represent one conglomerate horizon. It contains limestone pebbles, sometimes of 

considerable size, and these were derived from a Middle Devonian formation, 

apparently the same as that near Kennett. Shasta County. The common forms 

are Fistulipora, Cladopora, Favosites (two or more species, one of which is F. 

canadensis), Cyathophyllum, and Syringopora. All of these species are also 

known in the Middle Devonian limestone near Kennett.

These fossils, however, do not indicate the age of this conglomerate, more than 

that it is not older than Middle Devonian time. It was deposited subsequent to 

the Kennett limestone, and there are no fossils either in the pebbles or in t.:e 

paste (there are some free fossils in the paste, but these are fragmsnts of the same 

species as those in the pebbles), younger than those mentioned above to more 

definitely fix the age of this conglomerate.

Locality No. 2 [on Sacramento River, one-third mile above Morley] is a shaly 

limestone in place. This bed is not represented in our former collections from 

the Shasta County Devonian. It abounds in Atrypa missouriensis Miller (one of
GEOLOGIC AGE OF ROCKS OF KLAMATH MOUNTAINS. 65

the finely striated forms of A. reticularis) , Scliizoplioria striatula (Schlotheim), 

Cladopora sp. undet., Fistulipora (the same species as the one in the conglomerate), and crinoid stems.

These fossils also indicate Middle Devonian age. At first I supposed that the

Schizophoria would prove the horizon to be Upper Devonian, but the presence of

A. missouriensis and Cladopora do not support this view. On the other hand,

" S. striatula abounds in both the Middle and Upper Devonian, and our dependence

for age determination must therefore rest upon the other fossils.

That the associated slates and conglomerates with fossil fragments 

are younger than the Middle Devonian is suggested also by some 

plant remains collected by Mr. Storrs a few miles northwest of Slatonis. Among these Prof. William M. Fontaine recognizes, with some 

doubt, Brachyphyttum, and he remarks " that Brachyphyllum is most 

developed in the Jurassic and lowest Cretaceous. If we may regard 

this plant as belonging to that genus, then, so far as its evidence goes, 

the strata are Jurassic or lowest Cretaceous. But as the generic place 

of the fossil can not be determined decidedly, and the amount of 

material is so small, the age can not be certainly fixed. A Jurassic 

age is indicated." The evidence thus far tends to confirm Mr. Hershey's views 1 as to the age of the Bragdon slates.

In September, 1900, a number of Cretaceous fossils which Dr. Stanton regards as of Horsetowu age Avere found in the valley of the 

Upper Illinois River near Waldo and Kerby, Oreg. Owing to the 

presence of this isolated area of soft Cretaceous sediments, a broad 

valley has been developed at this point. To the northwest the valley 

sediments are limited by a great mass of peridotite, and in the opposite direction they are. cut off by the older rocks of the Siskiyou 

Mountains. Similar isolated areas of closely allied Cretaceous beds 

basined in older rocks are well known 2 along Graves Creek in Oregon, and Redding Creek in California.

West of each of the Horsetown localities mentioned Aucella-bearing 

rocks have been found, along Van Deusen River above Hydesville, 

and along the stage road at Shelly Creek, Cal., 20 miles southwest of 

Waldo, Oreg. Near the coast in Oregon there is a great thickness of 

^ w/ee^a-bearing rocks separating the Chico and Horsetown beds from 

those of pre-Cretaceous age.

As to the rocks of that portion of the Coast Range which lies southwest of Mad River, a Cretaceous form of Aucella (determined by Dr. 

Stanton) was found along Van Deusen River above Hydesville, and 

it is certain that some of the sandstones and shales are younger than 

the rocks which form the mass of the Klamath Mountains. Imperfect 

fossils were found in the limestone near Laytonville. Among them 

Dr. Girty reports "a large but indeterminable gasteropod, and a number of small organic bodies which appear to belong to the genus Mitchi Am. Geologist, April, 1901, Vol. XXVII, p. 238.

^Fourteenth Ann. Kept. U. S. Geol. Survey, Pt. II, 1894, PI. XLV.

Bull. 196 02 5
66 TOPOGKAPHIC DEVELOPMENT OF KLAMATH MOUNTAINS, [BULL. 196.

eldeania. This genus has not heretofore been recognized in this country, but the name was given to similar obscure organisms from, the 

Carboniferous rocks of Great Britain. As the form in hand is so 

similar to the British species'(M, gregaria) as to be probably identical 

with it3 it seems more than likely that the California rocks are of the 

same general age." The Laytonville limestone contains small beds 

of red chert which, under the microscope, is seen to be full of minute, 

simple, round organisms like those of the radiolarian chert. The 

limestone, on the other hand, contains a multitude of forms which 

suggest the foraminiferre of chalk. The rock is locally gray, but generally reddish, and possibly corresponds to the Foraminiferal limestone described by Prof. A. C. Lawson in his sketch of the Geology of 

the San Francisco Peninsula. 1

1 Fifteenth Arm. Bept. U. S. Geol. Survey, 1895, p. 419.
INDEX.

Page.

Alder Springs, view of, plate showing... 18 

Avery Peak, altitude of................... 1(5

Bald Hills, Sherwood peneplain of, plate

showing........................ 33

Bally Mountain, features of .............. 20

Barklow Mountain, Klanmth peneplain

from, plate showing .......... 14

Bartlett Mountain, topographic features

near--.........-.-...-.--...---- 19

Battery Point stage, summary of -------- 13

Beaches, elevated, along seaward border

of Klamath peneplain......... 24-30

Becker, G. P., cited........................ 45

Bellspring peneplain, origin and extent

of.- - -.. --. --. 18-19,46 

remnants of ........................... 19-22

Bellspring stage, section illustrating..... 10

summary of............................ 11

Blacklock Point, marine deposits at..... 30

Blanco, Cape, marine deposits at...------ 30-31

section at....... ...............--- - 31

view of, plate allowing................ 24

Bully Choop Mountain, altitude of....... 10

Butler Peak, altitude of................... 16

Cahto Peak, altitude of and topography

near............................ 19

California, map of southern Oregon and

northern....................... 9

Cape. See next word of name. 

Capetown road. See Wildcat road. 

Cascade Range, map showing relations to

Coast Range, Sierra Nevada,

and Klamath Mountains ...... 9

Chetco, Oreg., plateau front and coastal

plain near, view of............ 28

Chetco River, Oregon, rock stack near,

plateshowing ......A.......... 26

terraces near ...... .................. 28

Coast Range, crest of, view of............ 12

map showing relations to Cascade

Range, Sierra Nevada, and

Klamath Mountains........... 9

profile of Klamath Mountains and ... 23 

relation to Klamath Mountains....... 61412

to Klamath peneplain ............. 60-61

Coast Range region, northern, stages in,

sections illustrating........... 10

Coastal plain, features of ................. 24-25

Cole, B., photographs by.................. 18,20

Continental border stage, summary of .. 13 

Coos Bay subsidence, summary of........ 14

Coos River, earlier valleys of Coquille

River and...................... 60

Page. 

Coquille River, earlier valleys of Coos

River and..--...-.--....-....-- 50

Courtney, Mount, altitude of and topography near .................... 17

Crescent City, marine deposits near..... 31-35

section at.............................. 34

terraces between Rogue River and .. 27-28 

south of............................ 28-30

Dall, W. H., quoted.................. 32,33-35,41

reference to...................... 32,30,47,57

Davis, Henry, reference to................ 40*

Davis, W. M., cited........................ 45

Denmark, marine terraces near.......... 20

Dislocation of Miocene deposits ........... 47-48

Displacement and uplift, discussion of... 57 

Earlier valley filling and subsidence, discussion of...................... 57

Earlier valleys, discussion of.........._,_ 49-58

Eddy, Mount, altitude of ............. r ... 10

Edson Butte, altitude of.................. 16

Eel River, earlier valley of ............... 55

marine deposits on1 .................... 36-41

terraces near.......................... 29

Eightmile Prairie, altitude of............ 16

Elk River, earlier valley of............... 51

section from Cape Blanco to.......... 81

Emery, Mount, Klamath peneplain near. 16 

Eocene time, stages in northern Coast 

Range region since, sections 

illustrating.................... 10

Erosion, effect of.......................... 11-13

Fairbanks, H. W., cited................... 63

Faulting, effect of......................... 11

Ferndale, fossils found near.............. 39

Fin Rock, view of, plateshowing......... 24

Fluvio-estuarine deposits of Trinity

drainage....................... 41-45

Fontaine, W. M., quoted.................. 65

Fossils, discussion of ................ 33-35,37-41

Gabb, W. M., cited........................ 33

Garberville stage, orogenic movement

initiating ...................... 49

section illustrating record from marine-terrace stage to.......... 10

summary of ........................... 12

Girty, G. H., quoted ...................... 64,65

Glaciation, discussion of.................. 58-59

Gold Bluff, auriferous sands and gravel

at ............................. 53

Goodyear, , cited ........................ 41

Grindstone Creek, view across, plate

showing........................ 18

Grizzly Bluff, marine deposits near...... 40

67
68 INDEX.

1 'age. 

Haley, T., reference to.................... 32

Hay Fork, fluvio-estuarine deposits at... 43-44 

Hay Fork stage, summary of............. ]2

Hershey, O. H., cited...................... 58,63

reference to............................ 17

Hyampom, fluvio-estuarine deposits at.. 41-43 

Irma, Klaruath peneplain near ........... 1(J

Iron Mountain. Klamath peneplain on,

view of.-...---.....---...-..--. 14

Klamath Mountains, general relations of. 9-10 

history of, summary of ............... 11-15

map showing relations to Coast and 

Cascade ranges and Sierra 

Nevada ........................ 9

profile of Coast Range a nd............ 23

relation to Coast Range............... 61-62

i-ocksof, age of ........................ 63-66

Klaniath peneplain, age of................ 47

beaches, elevated,along seaward border of .......................... 24-30

marine deposits bordering............ 30-41

movements of, diagram illustrating.. 14 

origin of ----------....------.----.----. 45-46

relation to earlier valleys, section

showing........................ 49

to SierraNevadaandCoast Range. 60-61 

remnants of............--...----.....-. 15-18

views of....................... 12,14,16,20,22

Klamath River, earlier valley of ......... 52-54

terraces near .......................... 29

Klamath stage, section illustrating ...... 10

summary of ........................... 11

Knowlton, F. H., quoted................ 33,42-44

Lassie Peak, altitude of................... 18

Lawson, A. C., cited....... ............. 9,29,66

reference to .----...----..---.....--... 36,38

Le Conte, J., cited......................... 58

Liiidgren, W., cited ....................... 60

Lone Ranch Creek, terraces near........ 27-28

Lucas, F. A., quoted ...................... 43

referenceto............................ 59

McGrew road, Klamath peneplain from,

plate showing.................. 16

Mad River, earlier valley of.............. 54

marine deposits on .................... Ii5-36

Maddens mine, view of, plate showing... 26 

Mail Ridge, topographic f eatiires of...... 19

Marine deposits bordering Klamath peneplain .- _ ... _ . 30^*1 

Marine-terrace stage, section illustrating 

record from Garberville stage 

to .............................. 10

summary of ........................... 13

Marine terraces near Port Orford, profile

of-...........- .............. 26

Marsh, O. C., reference to .............. 45

Merriam, J. C., reference to...--.-....... 37,38

Miocene deposits, dislocation of .......... 47-48

Mount. See next word of name. 

Ocean View, Klamath peneplain from,

plate showing ............ ... 20

Oregon, map of northern California and

southern....................... 9

Oregon coast, subsidence along .......... 59-60

Page. 

Orogenic movement initiating Garberville stage.... ................ 49

initiating Sherwood stage ............ 48

Paskenta, Bellspring peneplain near..... 21

Pebble Beach, marine deposits at........ 34

sections at.......-__-- - . _..... 34

Pistol River, Klamath peneplain south of 16 

Point St. George. See St. George Point. 

Port Orford, marine terraces near, profile of..... ................... 26

Post-Battery Point subsidence, summary

of... -.-- .--.... ....... 13

Post-Bell sprin g uplift, summary of...... 11

Post-continental border subsidence, summary of ........ ....--..... . 13

Post-Garberville subsidence, summary of 12 

Post-Hay Fork uplift, summary of....... 13

Post-Klamath faulting, effect of.......... 11

Post-Miocene elevation, discussion of.... 57-58

Post-Slier wood uplift, summary of ...... 12

Preston Peak, altitude of................. 10

Red Mountains, character of ............. 16

Redding Creek, fluvio-estuarine deposits

at..... ..... _ ..._.... 44

Redwood Creek, earlier valley of --...... 54

Rio Dell, fossils found near. _ .__.... 39

marine deposits at and near.......... 40

Rogvie River, bsaches, elevated, north of. 26-27

earlier valley of....................... 51

terraces between Crescent City and.. 27-28 

Roseburg, Oreg., Klamath peneplain

from, plate showing........... 12

Klamath peneplain near, description

of... ........ -.-.... 15

Round Valley, marine deposits in ........ 41

Sacramento Valley, Cretaceous sediments

of................. .......... 60

St. George Point,marine deposits near.. 31-32 

Salt Creek, marine deposits on............ 41

Schuchert,C., cited........................ 63

quoted ................................. 64-65

Scotia, marine deposits near.............. 36-37

Shaler,N.S., cited......................... 45

Sherwood peneplain, discussion of ....... 22

views of.... - - -.----- --- 22 

Sherwood stage, orogenic movement initiating ... ..... . 48

section illustrations.. .-- ........ 10

summary of .......---...------........ 11-12

Sierra Nevada, map showing relations to 

Coast and Cascade ranges and 

Klamath Mountains.......... 9

relation to Klamath peneplain ....... 60-61

Sixes River, earlier valley of ............. 51

Smith,J.P., cited.--...-.......... ..- 63

Smith, W.S.T., cited...... ................. 45

Snow Mountain, altitude of .............. 20

South Fork Mountain, Klamath peneplain

near -. .-.. -- .......--- 18

Stanton,T.W.,reference to............... 64

Stony Creek, earlier valley of ............ 56

Storrs, James, reference to ............... 43,64

Streams,parallelism of.................... 10

Subsidence, discussion of.................. 59-60
INDEX. 69

Page. 

Subsidence, effect of-..----.-...-_..-... 12,13,14

Subsidence and earlier valley filling, discussion of...--.-.-.-........... 57

Swift Creek Glacier,description of ...... 58

Tarr, R. S.. cited .......................... 45

Terraces, marine, near Port Orford, profile of........................... 20

See also Beaches, elevated. 

Thompson Peak, altitude of .............. 10

Tide water, ascent of, in Oregon.......... 59-CO

Trinity drainage, fluvio-estuarine deposits of........................ 41-45

Tyee Mountain, Klaniath peneplain near. 15 

Qkiah, topographic features near....-.-. 19

Uinpqua River, earlier valley of......... 50

Uplifts, summary of.................... 11,12,13

Uplift and displacement, discussion of... 57

Page. 

Valleys, earlier, discussion of............. 49-58

Vernado, Klaniath peneplain near, plate

showing........................ 10

Waldo, Klaniath peneplain near, description of.......................... 17

Klaniath peneplain near, plate showing ............................. 16

Ward, L. F., quoted....................... 42

Weaverville, fluvio-estuarine deposits

near............:............... 4.4-45

Wildcat road, marine deposits along..... 39-40

Wildgrass Ridge, view of, plate showing ..................... ..... 52

Wynier beds, character of, and fossils in. 32-34 

Yallo Bally Peak, altitude of ............. 10

Yallo Bally Mountains, Klaniath peneplain of, plate showing........ 22

o