History of Alameda County, California : including its geology, topography, soil, and productions, Part 2

Author: Munro-Fraser, J. P
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Oakland, Calif. : M.W. Wood
Number of Pages: 1206

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AREA .- Alameda County contains about eight hundred square miles, or five hundred and twelve thousand acres, nearly equally divided between mountains, val- leys, and plains, nearly twenty thousand acres of which, along the margin of the Bay of San Francisco, are overflowed by the tide. -

HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.

GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY .- There is perhaps no subject in the whole range of scientific research so fraught with interest and so sure to yield a rich harvest to the investigator as the study of the earth's crust, its formation and upbuilding. In this the careful student and close observer sees more to prove the assertion that "in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" than can be found on any written page. Indeed, it may well be called a written page-a tablet of stone on which the finger of God has written, in letters of life and death, the history of the world from the time when the earth was "without form and void," until the present day. What a wonderful scroll is it which, to him who comprehends, unfolds the story of the ages long since buried in the deep and forgotten past ! In wonder and amazement he reads the opening chapters, which reveal to his astonished gaze the formation of the igneous bed-rock or foundation crust on which, and of which, all the superstructure must be built. The formless and void matter is slowly crystallizing into that pecu- liarly organized tripartite mass known now as granite, than which there is no more curiously formed thing on earth, and none could be better adapted for foundation purposes than this adamantine stone. Silica, spar, and mica, three independent sub- stances, all crystallizing freely and separately, each after the manner and under the laws which govern its special formation, are so indissolubly united in one mass, that the action of the elements for centuries is scarcely perceptible, and the corrosive tooth of time makes but a print upon its polished surface during ages.

From this page we turn to the one above it, for be it known that the geological book is arranged so that its primary pages come at the bottom. Here is found incip- ient life, in the form of tripolites, polyps, various classes of mollusks, together with worms and crustaceans. Near the close of the page there is found the record of fish also. All through the page is found descriptions of the primal vegetable life which existed on the earth in the shape of sea-weed and algæ. The entire face of the earth was then covered with water, for this was before the decree had gone forth which said, " Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear." What an era of storms and tempests that must have been ! No continents nor even islands against which the angry waves could dash in their fury. What tides there must have been ! But all this great commotion was neces- sary, for enough of the great granite body had to be dissolved and eroded to form a body of matter several hundred feet in thickness in the lowest places.

Another page is turned to view, and here is to be read the fact that the sea was full to overflowing with fish. And now the dry land had appeared, "and the earth brought forth grass." Here was the beginning of vegetable life in the world, other than which grew in the sea. Animal life has now advanced to the vertebrata, and vegetable life has been ushered into the world. Great earthquakes now begin to occur, and mountain ranges are formed. Storm and tempest rage much as in the last age, and erosion is going on rapidly, and detritus is forming layer after layer of the rocks now classified as belonging to this geological period. What cycles of time, as measured by man's chronology, transpired during this age, no one can tell, yet to man, if it could be told to him, it would seem to be not a time, but an eternity ..

The unfolding of the next page reveals to man the most useful as well as wonderful epoch in the upbuilding of the earth's superstructure. It is now that the

GEOGRAPHY, AREA, GEOLOGY, MINERALOGY, ETC.

great coal fields are formed, from which man, in the due fullness of time, is permitted to draw his supplies for fuel for all purposes. How wonderfully is the munificence and wisdom of God exemplified in this one age in the world's formation! Quite large areas of land have now been elevated above the surface of the raging Devonian sea. The native heat of the earth radiating continuously, expanded the waters into vast volumes of mist, which floated upward till it came in contact with the cooler strata of air, when it was precipitated to the earth in grand old thunder showers. The atmosphere was charged with heat and burdened with moisture and carbonic acid. These were conditions most favorable for the development of a gigantic and profuse growth of vegetation, and the surface of the earth was covered with such a forest as the mind of man cannot conceive. Centuries rolled by, and at last large masses of these trees had grown up, fallen down and formed themselves into interminable and impenetrable jungles. Then the continents began to exchange places with the seas, and water covered the great forests so lately in the full flush of their exotic pride. Then the salt and sand formed great bodies of shales and slate-stone upon the top of the forest, and the weight of the body of rock and earth pressed it till it formed into the mass we now find it, and the process of solidification occurred, and stone coal was the result. In accordance with the laws of correlation and conservation of forces, the great coal beds are only immense reservoirs of heat in a latent state, awaiting the proper conditions for development and application to the uses and advantages of the human family. Could a man have seen the process of coal-making going on, away back in the almost twilight of the early dawn of the earth's existence, he would naturally have asked : To what use can that brittle, black material ever be put ? Too fragile for building purposes, and too hard and sterile for agricultural economics, and yet evidently designed by the All-wise Creator for some benificent purpose. But to-day the answer is written on every hand in letters of living light. The sunbeam, charged with heat, comes from the bosom of that great source of light and heat, and assimilates itself with the great body of heat and vegetation, then everywhere so rife. Ages roll on and that sunbeam and its brothers of that day, have long since been for- gotten. The fullness of time has now come, and a race of beings inhabit the earth which existed only in the will and mind of the Infinite One at the time of the upbuilding of these great coal measures. These creatures are called men, and they are delving far down into the deep recesses of the earth. For what are they search- ing amid the dark chambers and along the gloomy passages which they have burrowed out in the bosom of the earth? We follow and find them with pick and drill dis- lodging a heavy, black substance, and sending it in cars to the surface of the ground. We follow it as it passes from hand to hand. Do you see that happy household band gathered around the cheerful hearth, while, without, the storm-king rages with all the fury of a demon? Hark ! Do you hear the clank and whir of machinery which comes from those buildings, affording employment for hundreds of needy men and women, keeping the wolf from the door, and even making them happy ? Do you see that train of cars speeding over hill, through valley and across plain, bearing with it a host of people, hurrying to and fro from their avocations of life? Do you see the mighty steamer which plows the ocean's crested main from port to port, from land to land, bearing the wonderful burdens of commerce in its capacious maw? Yes, you

HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.

see them all. You hear the pulse and throb of the mighty engine which drives all these wonders on to success, and which is conducive to man's happiness and best good. But did you ever pause to think that, ere time was, almost, the agent which was des- tined to perform all these marvels was garnered away in God's great store-houses -- the coal fields, and that to-day we are reaping the full fruition of all these centuries. How grand the theme! How the heart should echo in His praise for His wonderful goodness to the generations of men !

The next page reveals to us the fact that reptiles, frogs, and birds came into existence, or rather, that the two former developed into the full vigor of their genera- tion, while the latter was introduced for the first time upon the scene of action. It is not our purpose here to make any close inquiries into the origin of animal life, and shall use the word developed in relation to the introduction of a new series of animal life, as being eminently proper, but not as having any reference to the Darwinian idea of development, although the day has already dawned when the human race will accept the truths of that theory, let them be ever so contradictory to what is now taught. For our purpose one theory is as good as another. The fact is that in the carboniferous or coal period, there are no traces of birds at all ; and in the next age we find their foot-prints on the sandstone formations. Whence they came we know not nor do we care. They were of gigantic stature evidently, for their tracks often measured eighteen inches long, and their stride ranged from three to five feet! Another phase of animal life was developed in this age, and that was the mammal, which was an insect-eating marsupial.

Another page is laid open for our perusal, and on it we read that the race of rep- tiles reached their culmination in this age, holding undisputed sway over land and sea, and in the air. They were very numerous, and their forms exceedingly varied and strange, and their size in many cases gigantic. Some kinds, like the pliosaurus, plesiosaurus, and ichthyosaurus, were sea saurians, from ten to forty feet in length ; others were more like lizards and crocodiles ; others, like the megalosaurus and iguano- don, were dinosaurs, from thirty to sixty feet in length ; others, like the pterodactylus, were flying saurians, and others turtles. The megalosaurus was a land saurian, and was carnivorous. This is the first land animal, of which there is any record, which subsisted on the flesh of other animals. The pterodactyl was one of the most won- derful animals which ever existed on the face of the earth. It had a body like a mammal, wings like a bat, and the jaws and teeth of a crocodile. It was only one foot long.

The next page does not reveal any very marked changes from the last. The same gigantic reptiles are in existence, but on the wane, and finally become extinct during this era. The vertebrates make a great stride forward towards their present condi- tion, while all the leading order of fishes are developed just as they exist to-day. Up to this time the fish had not been of the bony kind, but now that peculiarity is developed.

We have now perused the great book of nature until we have come up to those pages which are everywhere present on the surface of the earth. Figuratively, we may consider this page divided into three sections: the first or lower of which contains. nothing in common with the present age, all life of that day having long since become

GEOGRAPHY, AREA, GEOLOGY, MINERALOGY, ETC.

extinct. The second section contains fossils more nearly related to the present time, from ten to forty per cent. being identical with the living species. In the third section the percentage of similar species runs from fifty to ninety. The continents of the world had assumed very nearly the same shape and outline which they maintain at the pres- ent time. Sharks reached the height of their glory in this age, while the reptiles assumed their true form of snakes, crocodiles, and turtles. For the first time in the history of the world is there any record of snakes. And how far they preceded man will remain for the reader to determine from what follows farther on. The mammals of this age are the chief objects of interest, not only on account of their great number and the extended variety of forms under which they appear, but especially because this period marks the time of the introduction of the true mammals on the earth. The seas and estuaries, though rich in animal life, no longer furnish the most prominent representatives of the animal kingdom; but in this period the mammals assume the first rank. But it must be here stated that some of these species lived beyond the close of this age. These animals inhabited the upper Missouri section in great quan- tities, and comprised the moose, rhinoceros, a species similar to the horse, tapir, peccary, camel, deer, hyena, dog, panther, beaver, porcupine, musk-deer, mastodon, wolf, and fox. How like a dream it seems that these precursors of the present races of mammals should all be swept out of existence; still, when we come to know what climatic changes occurred at the close of this period, we will not wonder any longer. Not only were the "fountains of the great deep broken up and the rains descended," but the conti- nent sank deep below its present surface, and a great sea of ice from the north swept over its face, bearing death and destruction to all living creatures in its path. This was the glacial period, and its results are written on the next page.

This page reveals a wonderful mystery! The throes of death were the travails of birth, and that condition of things which swept from the face of the earth an entire animal kingdom,paved the way for the existence of a higher and fuller life, even man himself. Hitherto the earth had been in a process of incubation, as it were-"the spirit of the Lord had brooded over the earth," and this was the finality to it all. This was the long winter of death which preceded the spring of life. This is known as the drift or boulder period, and its phenomena are spread out before us over North America. The drift consists of materials derived from all the previous formations, and comprises all stages from the finest sand to boulders and fragments of rock of gigantic size. When the vast sea of ice came crushing down from the far-away home of old Boreas an inestimable quantity of rock was caught in its giant clutch and ground to powder. Others were rolled and polished till they were as smooth as glass, while others were fastened into the body of the ice, and carried along miles and leagues from their native ledges. Throughout the Mississippi Valley are numerous granite boulders, but no known ledge of it exists nearer than the northern lakes." As soon as the continents had risen from their depressed condition and the icy era had subsided, wonderful to relate, life sprang into existence in a fuller and stronger condition than ever before. The vegetable and animal life of this age was the same as to-day, except the mammals, which, strange to say, passed away almost entirely at the end of that era. The elephant during that period was about one-third larger than the present species, and near the close of the last century one of these monster animals was found imbedded in the ice

HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.

on the coast of Siberia in such a state of preservation that the dogs ate its flesh. Among the many pictures which this fertile subject calls up, none is more curious than that presented by the cavern deposits of this era. We may close our survey of this period with the exploration of one of these strange repositories; and may select Kent's Hole at Torquay, Devonshire, England, so carefully excavated and illuminated with the magnesium light of scientific inquiry by Mr. Pengelly and a committee of the British Association. In this cave there are a series of deposits in which there are bones and other evidences of its habitation both by animals and men. The lowest stratum is comprised of a mass of broken and rounded stones, with hard red clay in the interstices. In this mass are numerous bones, all of the cave-bear. The next stratum is composed of stalagmites, and is three feet in thickness, and also contains the bones of this bear. The existence of man is inferred at this time from the pres- ence of a single flint-flake and a single flint-chip. Water seems to have now flooded the cave and the next stratum is composed of stones, clay, and debris, such as would naturally be deposited by water. But the strangest part of it is, that this flood stratum is rich in relics of its former inhabitants, yielding large quantities of teeth and bones of the elephant, rhinoceros, horse, hyena, cave-bear, reindeer, and Irish elk. With these were found weapons of chipped flint, and harpoons, needles, and bodkins of bone, precisely similar to those of the North American Indians. This stratum is four feet in thickness, and in one spot, near the top, there is a layer of charcoal and burnt wood, with remains which go to show that human beings had been there and prepared their food by cooking it, and it also proves that the knowledge and use of fire was known far down into the early dawn of man's existence on earth. It is to be borne in mind that this is all anterior to the present state of affairs, and that all the animals men- tioned as contemporaneous with these primitive men have long since passed out of existence, and may not the race of men to which those people belonged have passed away also, and another race sprung up in their stead, the same as other races of animals have developed to supply the place of those passed away. These are questions worthy of more than a hasty glance. Another layer of stalagmite now appears to have been formed, in which are bones, having the same characteristics as those mentioned above, only the jaw-bone of a man with the teeth in it was found. Now a wonderful change occurs. The next stratum is black mould, and is from three to ten inches thick, but in it are found only evidences of modern times, both in the relics of man and beast. The bones of the animals are of the orders which exist at the present time, and the relics of men extend from the old Briton tribes before the Roman invasion up to the porter bottles, and dropped half-pence of yesterday's visitors. How long a time tran- spired between the last visit of the first race of men who knew this cavern, and the first visit of the old Britons, is hard to even guess. That it was many ages none will dare to question.

We now come to the last page of the great geological book which records the present era of the world's history, which is pre-eminently the age of man. That man existed previous to the present order of things, there can be no question; but it remained for this period to fully develop him in all his glories and powers. The dark night of winter with its snows and ice, before whose destructive and frigid breath all things which had lived on the earth had perished, including primitive man, had passed away,

GEOGRAPHY, AREA, GEOLOGY, MINERALOGY, ETC.

and the whole face of the earth was smiling and rejoicing in the spring-time of its new existence. The seasons were fully established, and summer's suns and winter's ice assumed their appropriate offices in the grand economy of the earth. The seed time of spring and the harvest time of autumn followed each other through the cycles of centuries and will never change. The earth was all virgin soil and very rich and produc- tive. The air was fresh, bracing, and free from all poisonous exhalations. All nature was complete. Animal life had again covered the world, and all was ready for the crowning effort of Nature-man. Away in western Asia, there was a land favored far above all the countries of the earth, so much so that it could truly be called a para- dise. It was a table-land, at the head-waters of the rivers that flow into the Euxine and Caspian Seas, and the Persian Gulf. Its climate was healthful and bracing, with enough of variety to secure vigor, and not so inclement as to exact any artificial provision for clothing or shelter. Its flora afforded an abundance of edible fruits to sustain life, and was rich in all the more beautiful forms of plant life, while its clear streams, alluvial soil, and undulating surface, afforded a variety of beautiful scenery, and all that would go to make up the sine qua non of human existence. It was not infested with the more powerful and predaceous quadrupeds, and animals which did inhabit the region had nothing to fear, for man was originally purely vegetarian in his diet, and in this paradise he found ample supplies of wholesome food. His require- ments for shelter were met by weaving bowers of the overhanging trees. The streams furnished gold for ornaments, shells for vessels, and agate for his few and simple cut- ting instruments. Such was man's estate in the first days of his existence; but the eternal laws of progression soon forced him out of his primitive bowers into huts, and thence into houses and palaces, and the end of that progression is not yet. And the human race has a future before it which, if it could be seen and comprehended at one glance, would cause the heart of man to stand still in wonder and amazement.

We will now pass to a consideration of the geological formation of Alameda County, as is to be found in Professor Whitney's Geological Survey of California.

Contra Costa Hills .- The subordinate group of elevations lying west of Mar- tinez and the San Ramon and Livermore Valleys is known as the Contra Costa Hills ; they extend through the county of that name into Alameda and Santa Clara Counties, and finally become merged in the Mount Hamilton Division of the Monte Diablo Range. These hills are separated from the principal mountain mass of Monte Diablo by a system of valleys, extending for about forty-five miles, and preserve a somewhat distinctive character for some fifteen miles farther, losing their identity entirely about the head of Calaveras Valley. They are made up of tertiary and cre- taceous strata, usually but little metamorphosed; although a belt extending along their western side is considerably altered from its original character.

Beginning at the northwest extremity of the group, at Martinez, we have in the immediate vicinity of that place cretaceous strata, well exposed in the bluffs along the Straits of Carquinez. Here the rocks observed are sandstones, shales, and argillaceous limestones, the latter forming bands and lenticular masses in the shales, generally but a few inches thick, although as much as three feet. Their strike is usually N. 42° W., varying, however, from N. 39° W. to N. 44° W., and they dip southwest at an angle of from 35° to 60°.

HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.

The rocks near Martinez have furnished a large number of specimens of cretaceous fossils of both divisions.

In passing along the shore of the Straits of Carquinez, west of Martinez, the cretaceous strata occur for about seven miles, and are made up of shales and sand- stones, the former containing frequent thin layers of hydraulic limestone. These rocks, however, exhibit but few fossils. The dip and strike are variable, but generally about east and west magnetic, and the dip is also irregular, but almost always to the southwest, and at almost every angle from nearly horizontal to vertical ; the strike is nearly parallel with the line of the straits. Near the upper limit of the cretaceous, are sandstones very like those of Monte Diablo which accompany the coal, and they contain a considerable quantity of carbonaceous matter, but no regular coal-bed, so far as yet discovered. Near these carbonaceous strata, and above them, is a narrow belt, partly altered and folded, and from one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet in width. The Rodeo Valley marks the limit of the cretaceous going west from Marti- nez, the tertiary succeeding in that direction, and resting conformably on the strata beneath, and having the same general southwestern dip. South of Martinez the cre- taceous strata have a higher dip, but in the same direction.

Southwest of the Rodeo Valley lies a broad belt of tertiary rocks, which extends from San Pablo Bay to Amador Valley, forming the mass of the Contra Costa Hills, for a distance of about thirty-five miles northwest and southeast, and having a breadth of from six to eight miles. The rocks are chiefly sandstones, and in places highly fossiliferous. San Pablo Creek heads in this belt, and flows between two parallel ridges in the line of the strike of the rocks. On the west side of the creek, about four miles a little southeast of San Pablo, the rocks contain considerable bituminous matter, and a well had been bored here in 1862 to the depth of eighty-seven feet, at which point oil was struck, which it was proposed to purify by distillation, and works were erected for this purpose, as also to obtain oil from the highly saturated sandstone .* At these springs the rock has a high dip northeast; but farther northwest it dips to the south- west, while the hills in the vicinity are too deeply covered by soil and decomposed rock to admit of the general position of the strata being determined satisfactorily.

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History of Alameda County, California : including its geology, topography, soil, and productions, Part 2

Author: Munro-Fraser, J. P Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Oakland, Calif. : M.W. Wood Number of Pages: 1206

Author: Munro-Fraser, J. P
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Oakland, Calif. : M.W. Wood
Number of Pages: 1206