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174 GEOLOGY.
These plains are the commencement of a country of diluvial formation, that extends
from Cape Beaufort to Icy Cape, Reindeer station, and Wainwright’s Inlet, Beyond
that, Mr Elson has described the coast and country to be a continuation of the same
formations, and at Cape Smyth, near his extreme point, in lat. 7 F 13' N ., long.
156® 45' W., he observed icy cliffs presenting their fronts under the like circumstances
as at Cape Blossom and in Eschscholtz Bay.
The following specimens were brought up from the bottom by the dredge, ou the
evening of August 13, in lat. 71® N ., long. 162® 48' W.
No. 1. Greyish sand-stone, in considerable quantity ;
No. 2. Indurated clay, in greatest abundance ;
No. 3. Coal, in considerable quantity;
No. 4. Indurated clay, with vegetable impressions;
and, on tbe 14th of August, at Lagoon beach, or Reindeer station, there were found
among tbe pebbles fragments of granite, syenite, aventurine, coal, and indurated clay,
the la tter predominating.—C.
BAY OF SAN FR A N C ISC O , CA L IFO R N IA .
See P la te I I I . Geology.
The specimens collected in and near the Bay of San Francisco consist of many
varieties of common serpentine, noble serpentine, bronzite, and asbestos; clay-slate,
and mica slate, chlorite slate, horn-stone, brown, green, and red jasper, and rolled
blocks of glassy actynolite ; grey sand-stone, and imperfect wood-coal. The country
near the P o rt of San Francisco is composed chiefly of sand-stone, jasper, and serpentine.
"VVood-coal is found in slight seams on the north side of the entrance of the bay,
and native salt near Santa Clara. Many of the summits of the hills are composed of
jasper, forming elongated ridges, of which tbe general direction is north aud south.
This jasper is succeeded by sand-stone, of a loose texture, not effervescing with acids,
and disposed in every angle of stratification, occasionally it is hard and of a blue c a s t;
it is frequently interrupted by abrupt masses of laminated jasper in wavy stratification.
The appearance of the jasper, at its contact with the sand-stone, is often very remarkable.
The jasper appears not to have acted on or displaced the sand-stone ; its exterior,
for eighteen inches or two feet, is usually rugged, and mixed with carbonate of lime,
quartz, and indurated clay ; its interior, however, presents a very beautiful wavy disposition
of the component lamin®, a remarkable example of which occurs at the Needle
Rock, nearly opposite the fort. A view of it is engraved at pi. I I I . Geology. I t
resembles an immense mass of sheets of paper, or bands of list, crumpled and contorted
by lateral pressure. This contortion only occurs in the red jasper, the yellow being
seldom (if at all) stratified, but generally separated by cracks into rhomboidal pieces.
A mass of at least 100 feet in thickness is beautifully stratified in short wavy lines,
opposite the fort near P u n ta Diavolo, and rests on sand-stone.
Between Pu n ta Boneta and Punta Diavolo the sand-stone is of a bluish grey
colour, containing particles of coal.