Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-12-29
CHANGE In NATURE.
WHEN CALIFORNIA; VALLEYS
WERE INLAND SEAS.
Speculations in Science as to the
Ancient Topography of the
Golden State.

4 paper prepared by Theodore II. Hit
tell for the Academy of Sciences contains
a statement of certain discoveries made by
Adolph Sutro last summer which tend to
show that the peninsular on which the
city is situated was once six hundred feet
or more lower than at present. Mr..
Sutro had occasion to sink well on the
high ground of the San Miguel rancho,
south Of Golden Gate Park, the spot Sc
lected being 700 feet above the level OF
the sea, between two peaks 800 feet
high. The nature of the rock of which
the pakes are formed and the topography
of the region, caused Mr.. Sutro TO believe
that the ledge would be struck few feet
below the surface, and that it would
be difficult to sink the well. "But,"
saws Mr.. HIttell, the well-diggers
found first four feet of black loan
and then beneath the black loan eight
feet Of yellow clay. Below the clay they
found sand-a fine, loamy sort of sand,
a sand in which the grains Of quartz
seem TO be disintegrated or decomposed.
To their great surprise they continued
sinking further and further down through
this sand to depth of about 112 feet,
when they at last came to the bedrock,
and found it to be the same reddish, met
amorphic sandstone as the peaks on each
side. At or near the bottom of the sand,
and at a depth of at least 100 feet below
the surface, several redwood logs were
found, and several large bones, which
have been pronounced by competent
authority to be those of sea-lions. The
redwood logs were large and in a suf-
ficient state of preservation, though nearly
reduced to coal or Ignite, and dis
posed to crumble on exposure 10 the at
mosphere, TO make out their character.
They we're found lying in horizontal
position, and well soaked in the water
which, at that depth, was abundant. The
bones, which still retained their osseous
composition and were not petrifed, were
found among the logs, and had evidently
been deposited and covered up about the
same time and with the same materials
that buried the logs.
All the circumstances would seem to in
dictate that the redwood logs and bones
thus found in the middle of the high lands
of the city and county of San Francisco
and at an elevation of about six hundred
feet above the present ocean level, were
placed there by the ocean. 1t was Of
course at a time--how many thousands Of
years ago there is no intention of even at
tempting to guess-when the altitude Of
the peninsula above tide-water was very
different from what it is now. 1t was at q
time recent in comparison with the time
when the sandstones were first deposited
in strata, but long enough ago to make one
believe that almost all of California wa:
then under water, and that the Sacramento
and San joaquin plains constituted the
bottom of great inland sea. There is
no good reason to doubt that at the time
referred to-whenever they may have
been-the ocean dashed up to the very
spot where these logs and bones were
found. The logs were clearly not the re-
mains of trees grown at the place, fol
there is no indication of soil near them
nor is it likely that they or the sealions
bones were carried there by human
agency. 1t is possible that much if MOI
all Of the superintendent sand may have
been blown there, as it is certain thai
most of the abundant sands of the
peninsula have been thrown up by the
ocean and brought inland by the winds
But every probability is in favor of the
supposition of a very different ocear
level for the peninsula at 40 very remot;
geologic period-of which, indeed, there
are many other evidences-and that a
that time the spot where these logs ant
bones were found was sort of a cove
into which the ocean of an earlier ag'
rolled It's long pillows and deposited then
as a portion of its drift. Since then Their,
have doubtless been uprisings of the coast
probably subsidences, also; perhaps will
very great differences in number and ex
tent OF uprisings and subsidences in dii
ferent places, and the final result is tn
conformation of little mountains, high
lanG>, ridges, hills, ravines, lakes, rock
ledges, small valleys, clay banks, san,
drifts anu wind flats that go to make u
the wonderful site upon which sits, and i
to ST. ,he ereaest city of the Wester
World s. Z. Bulletin.