USA > California > History of California, Volume V > Part 5
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South of the San Francisco region small pockets of the coastal area quite apart from the northwestern Humid Belt, harbor distinctive forms of wren tit, song sparrow, and chickadee, while up and down the whole disjointed coastal plain migrates that little salt-marsh creeper, the Bryant sparrow.
At its southern end the Coast range divides in the Santa Barbara region into two general masses. While one portion turns inland, the other continues southward from Point Conception out to sea as a now partly submerged peninsula evidenced by the group of peaks known as the Channel Islands. These islands are separated from the mainland of southern California by
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the Santa Barbara Channel, an ancient gulf comparable to the Gulf of California, until in recent geological time, it established a northern outlet by washing across the old peninsula in the vicinity of Santa Barbara. When this important event took place there were left ma- rooned on the resultant chain of islands a number of forms of life some of which, though probably added to from time to time by various contributions from the mainland, have come to be distinct and characteristic of their insular habitats. Among the birds thus segre- gated are the San Clemente house finch, the island horned lark, San Clemente towhee, island shrike, Santa Cruz jay, San Nicolas rock wren and others. No less than four distinct races of gray fox occupy as many sepa- rate is lands of the group. The ground squirrel and white footed mouse add to the distinctiveness of the insular fauna by contributing each a modified subspecific form.
That subdivision of the southern Coast range mentioned above as passing inland from the region of Santa Barbara may now very properly claim our atten- tion. This mountain mass thrusts itself well to the eastward, its spurs coming to lie in an east and west direction. In southern Kern county it meets with a westward spur of the Sierra Nevada and the two fuse to form the transverse barrier of the Tehachapi, an ob- stacle of such magnitude that two great competing railways must needs smother a mutual enmity to such degree as will permit their using a common track, the only feasible route yet surveyed over this great divide. Up its either side labors a great state's internal traffic only to lower itself cautiously and with almost equal effort down the serpentine loops of the opposite slope.
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No less than the geographer does the biologist find this transverse wall of intense interest. Long before it could hamper the as yet unborn commercial activity of the rising human animal, it had proven an influence in measurably retarding the movements of the lower organisms. As a result of this insulating effect we are able to recognize south of this barrier the so-called San Diegan region, which is a well defined faunal island reaching from Santa Barbara on the north well down into northern Mexico. To the north and east of this area lie high mountains and beyond the mountains, deserts. Moat and battlement could not effect a more perfect barrier to ancient castle than does this combi- nation of desert-girt mountains through which the three narrow passes of Newhall, Cajon, and San Gorgonio offer the only gateways. Within this warm, sheltered orchard garden bordering the sea and so sharply contrasted with the northern Humid Belt we find such forms as the Anthony towhee, Bryant cactus wren, and black tailed gnatcatcher. With them push- ing south into Mexico goes a little beach comber, the large billed sparrow. Into this same area is now unfor- tunately intruding along the lines of railway through the three narrow passes that feathered Ishmaelite, the English sparrow. The San Bernardino kangaroo rat, the tawny gopher, San Bernardino grasshopper mouse, and the Xantus night lizard help to define this very interesting faunal area.
And now lastly our attention turns to the desert-the southeastern corner of the state-that part which it is said "God forgot." A wonder place, it holds the biolo- gist in an unbreakable hypnosis. Here there is run
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within a score or two of miles, the entire gamut of bio- logical changes from Boreal to Tropical. Here there are displayed some of nature's most fascinating phe- nomena of adaptation to an austere environment. In late August, at an elevation of more than eleven thousand feet one may walk over the snow packs of San Gorgonio peak out to the edge of things and look down into the pit of North America, sunken in clinker bare walls to a depth of nearly three hundred feet below the level of the Sea. Again one may stand at the margin of the shallow, brackish lake formed by runaway waters of the Colorado river empounded at the bottom of this pit and, here subject to a temperature sug- gestive of the veritable pit, he may look from barren, sterile, alkali lands to creosote and salt bush belt, thence to sage and oak belt, on up through various conifer belts, and finally to barren summit so near that it seems almost to overhang. With the eye one thus passes rapidly from desert with an annual rainfall of practically zero to snow covered peaks with nestling lakes and marshy meadows in the high hung valleys; from the sterility of heat and salt to the barrenness of cold and snow. What a condensation of biological areas! What endless interest when we learn that there occurs in each zone a specially adapted fauna and flora!
A popular concept of the desert makes of it a place wholly waste and devoid of life. One does not see how life can exist without water, the desert is a place without water, hence a place without life-a very simple con- clusion from a seemingly unchallenged premise. In this premise, however, lies the fundamental error. The desert is not waterless except by comparison with more
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favored spots. It may not rain this year but next year it probably will or else the year following. Some plants readily wait a year for a drink and are then content with a very scant sprinkling. They have developed during long ages of adjustment the power of rapid drinking through extended root systems spread just beneath the surface. Water thus acquired in time of meagre rainfall is almost indefinitely retained by means of thickened cuticle and minimized leaf surface. Seeds of more ephemeral flowers may lie hidden in the sand for several seasons before a rain comes sufficient to germinate them. They then leap into life, maturity is attained, seeds ripen on the drying stem from which the leaves have already withered, the brief life cycle is run within the few weeks of favorable condition, seeds drop into the shifting sand, and another long wait is in order. Where there is seed there is to be found the attendant procession of interdependent forms-ant, beetle, lizard, bird, rodent, snake, coyote, vulture-and the desert is alive. Leagues out on the Mojave desert from Barstow, away from water on surface or in sub- stratum, the writer found Gambel quail, cañon wren, sage sparrow, Say phoebe, mocking bird, kangaroo rat, jack rabbit, coyote, leopard lizard, scaled lizard, desert tortoise and unidentified insects.
About the Salton Sink on the Colorado desert there is an abundance of birds, mammals, and reptiles. No species is more distinctive of such environment than is that elusive songster, the Leconte thrasher, a bird with all the sweetness of song that the mocking bird possesses yet with too much originality to plagiarize as does that arch rascal. In similar haunts with Leconte thrasher
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occur the cactus wren, sage thrasher, and Gambel quail. About the natural oases and now readily adopting the artificial thickets of the irrigated ranches, is the desert song sparrow with much of the color from his speckled coat seemingly struck inward to enrich his joyous song till it surpasses that of his darker coastwise relative, the San Diego song sparrow. The flooding of the great Salton Sea and the distribution of water over the land by artificial means has attracted gulls, terns, pelicans, cormorants, rails, ducks, cranes, meadow larks, marsh blackbirds, and a host of other forms appearing most incongruous in the greater environment of the desert. Only a step out from these oases, however, the antelope chipmunk, zebra tailed lizard, desert rattlesnake, and desert tortoise help to remind one that the "desert primeval" is very much alive.
From the foregoing discussion it is evident that California because of her infinitely varied topography and consequent segregation of faunas, will hold for the student of species distribution an intense and unending interest. Here the great questions of adjustment to environment continually confront him. Why is the coast wren tit dark and the pallid wren tit from the interior some shades lighter? If forced to occupy an arid region would the coast form become bleached or remain dark? Why do they not intermingle? The valley quail goes out from the San Diegan region through San Gorgonio pass to the desert's edge, the Gambel quail comes in from the desert through the same pass to the edge of the more humid San Diegan; each species stops at the gate, as it were, and looks through at the, to him, unpromis- ing land on the opposite side; they mingle amicably here
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for a space but neither goes down into the domain of the other. Why do they respect the invisible barrier? It must be a matter purely of preference as each species occupies the same ecological position and on this com- mon border of their habitats the two mingle without visible antagonism. How does the desert rodent live his whole life through without knowledge of water and subsist, as captive specimens have done for years upon food no more succulent than dry bird seed? What is the immediate derivation of species of fish now dwelling in streams that empty into the "dead seas" of blind drainage systems? How did the Boreal faunas of our isolated mountain peaks become stranded upon these Arrarats as though once borne on a flood tide of cold now ebbed away from them? Science is confronted with a multitude of such questions many of which bid fair to remain long unanswered. The field naturalist joining hands with the experimental biologist, may solve in the near future some of these problems, still for a long time to come California cannot but appeal to the student of speciation as a land of opportunity.
Diverse as is the topography of the state there prevails over the major part of its large area a factor which at first glance would be considered a leveler of inequalities. That factor is what is known to the meteorologist as the Franciscan climate. The year is biseasonal; practically all the rainfall comes within the five months from November to April, and by far the greater portion is precipitated within three of these months. The winters are warm and the summers practically rainless for seven months consecutively and the summer temperature away from the coast may
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become quite high. The effect of such a climatic con- dition upon the fauna of the state is noticeable in several different ways. In regard to their activities, one will notice among the mammals of the Sonoran a marked absence of hibernation and a very positive tendency to estivation. The ground squirrels and the pocket gophers display locally such a tendency. They often lie quietly through the hottest, driest part of the year with no sign of activity at least upon the surface. As soon as the rains have moistened the earth suffi- ciently to green the hills over, the work of these pestiferous rodents is resumed in force.
Another noticeable effect of the climate is to increase the resident population of birds. Many kinds which are elsewhere migratory will remain within the state's borders throughout the year, performing slight geo- graphical migration or only the vertical migration up and down the mountains. The breeding season is prolonged. Several small species like the humming birds, finches, and the mocking bird may begin breeding in February and continue till October. Amphibians and lizards are active in December and January since the ponds never freeze sufficiently to drive their myriad population into refuge in the mud. Insects produce a greater number of broods per season since every month of the year has its flowers.
A further effect of the long period of unbroken sunshine is to bring about a sharp contrast between the north facing and the south facing slopes in even mod- erately broken country. On south facing slopes the sun lies long and lies warm. The moisture is drunk away in summer faster than the roots of perennial
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plants can burrow to deeper strata, hence we find on such exposures at lower elevations, only a growth of annuals and xerophytes which give place on higher elevations to the dwarfish chapparal or elfinwood. On the other hand, the shaded north facing slope may be wooded to the very crest of the divide. Damp, shady and cool, its perennial thickets offer lodgement to forms in sharp contrast to the open sunny exposures of the opposite tilt. On the one side the meadow lark, on the other side the song sparrow; on the one, the ground squirrel, on the other, the wood rat. Great tongues of the Sonoran Zone may run far up along the sunny side of a large valley to far overlap the downward reach of the Transition Zone along the opposite side. In such fashion do the larger biological areas become checkered into a smaller and smaller pattern of inter- mingled faunas until the observer, according to his lights, is either oppressed by the seeming tangle of forces at play or else he tingles with enjoyment of the orderly conformity of it all to simple and readable law.
To the student of things as they are, there very naturally and altogether properly comes the question as to how they were. Things have not always been so; everything changes even to men's ideas of the truth. Hence have we come to realize that the world today is a product not of special and instantaneous creation, but of long existing and still operative forces. Slow indeed has been the change, hence its tardy recognition. The period of human record is often spoken of by geol- ogists as being but a mere flash light, an instantaneous impression of the earth and her creatures. Man-made history is too young to record any progress in events
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geological, yet the present proves to us that such change has been and still is going on. We are forced to concede that mountains are born, yet born to die; that great inland seas may prove but ephemeral things; that climate no less than topography is subject to fluctuation.
In view of the intimate relation existing between the creature and its habitat one might expect the same law of mutability to hold true in biology. We find such to be the case as regards the nature, the abundance, and the distribution of any organic form. We are unable, with some possible exceptions, to see any great modification of a species in nature during the period of human record. Most of the observable changes in distribution and in numbers have been, alas, of a de- structive nature. To the question of how and whence the appearance of species, paleontology alone can con- tribute indisputable evidence. As history stands to economics so does paleontology stand to biology and neither student of present conditions can intelligently deal with his varied problems without an appreciative consideration of the salient points, so far as recorded, in the development of those conditions. It cannot then prove amiss in this discussion if mention is made of some of the horizons of chief interest in the vertebrate paleontology of California.
Within the limits of the state there are known a goodly number of bone bearing horizons. These beds are of different geological age, and represent a diversity of method of accumulation, hence they include a con- siderable range of fauna. The great Triassic limestone deposits of Shasta county are primarily marine and
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from them come the Shastasauridæ, a primitive family of Ichthyosaurians which have contributed materially to our understanding of the relationships of that group of highly specialized reptiles. We share with our east- erly neighbor, Nevada, this interesting family which until their very recent discovery in like strata of Europe were unknown except from the Sierra Nevadan lime- stones. Great whale-like creatures, they swam in an ancient Triassic sea whose calcareous bottom mud was later upheaved to form in part the Sierra Nevadan system. The immense mountain building blocks of limestone thus formed retain still the bones of these great creatures as hieroglyphics, readable to the appre- ciative eye as though scratched upon Chaldean tablets of kiln dried clay. The original anatomical interest in these primitive ichthyosaurs has been supplemented since the discovery of related forms in Europe, by an additional interest which appeals especially to the stu- dent of geographical distribution, an interest hinging upon their synchronous occurrence in points so widely separated upon the earth's surface.
Human history affords instance of some very ancient parchments from which the original record was sup- posedly erased by the mediæval historian in order that narrative of his own time might be inscribed thereon. These parchments, preserved to modern times, have thus born a dual record-a tale within a tale. So has it been with the great lenses of the Shasta limestone. Percolating waters have in several cases dissolved out extensive caverns in the upheaved blocks of the Triassic sea bottom; these caves engulfed, during Pleistocene time, the remains of mammals, birds, reptiles, and
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fishes; drainage lines changing, the mouths of the caves became closed and the second record was sealed away from harm in these perfect catacombs. In recent time, some hundreds of thousands of years of cañon cutting has again opened the bone bearing cavities and the modern scientific explorer reads the second inscription on these tablets of time hardened mud. Potter Creek, Samwel, and Hawver Caves are such repositories which have yielded interesting Pleistocene remains especially of mammals and birds. Two mammalian species espe- cially characteristic of these cave deposits are Eucera- therium and Preptoceras, hoofed forms showing affinities with several living ruminants including the now arctic musk ox. An elephant, a mastodon, a camel, a bison, two horses, the gigantic bear, Arctotherium, and the long clawed ground sloth, Megalonyx appear among the fifty or more mammals listed from these caves. Eighteen species of birds have been determined from the same deposits, a list which affords a dual interest, first because fossil birds are of such rarity that most of the species are for the first time recorded as fossils and second because several of the species have their nearest living relatives now confined to more southern latitudes.
An interesting deposit of Miocene strata occurs in the Mojave desert near Barstow. The nature of the accumulation is such as to indicate an extensive lake bed, the waters of which persisted for a considerable length of time. About this body of water there roamed great numbers of little three toed horses, Merychippus, the dimunitive deer-antelope, Merychodus, and two species of camel-like creatures, a large and a small one. The nature of this fauna is distinct from that of other
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Pacific coast faunas and shows its nearest relationships to lie with the plains-dwelling faunas of the Miocene east of the Rocky mountains.
The marine Miocene of the coastal region is rich in fossil whales but as yet little has been done in the determination of this material. There also occur in these beds associated with the teeth of sharks, the remains of that aberrant creature, Desmostylus, which has so long puzzled scientists as to its affinities. Molluscan remains from upper Miocene beds indicate a climate cooler than at present prevails in the region.
Perhaps the most remarkable deposit of fossil vertebrates in the west and certainly the one which has seized upon the interest and the imagination of popular and scientific readers alike, is that unique hori- zon, the Rancho La Brea asphalt. The manner of accumulation and preservation of remains; the perfect- ness of specimens; the wide range of species represented; the seemingly limitless amount of material; the remark- able completeness with which the Pleistocene fauna of the region is probably represented-all conspire to make these beds a wonder place to any one who visits them. Only a few minutes out from the business center of Los Angeles and a stone's throw aside from one of the splendid interurban boulevards, the locality attracts a procession of visitors from every class of society and every aspect of interest.
Deep down in the Miocene strata of this locality lie great beds of oil-impregnated sand, the tapping of which has afforded a great measure of California's monetary wealth. Earth shifting disturbances caused, in the geological ages following the Miocene, an upfolding and
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a consequent cracking of the overlying strata-a con- dition which as early as Pleistocene time established chimney-like connection between these buried oil sands and the surface above. Rock pressure and the expan- sive force of natural gases brought to the surface greater or lesser quantities of the crude oil which accumulated about the mouths of these chimney-like vents. With the slow upbuilding of the surrounding surface by process of soil formation, these oil accumulations built up likewise, now widening out, now encroached upon by the adjacent soil, until we discover them today as irregular but sharply defined lenses reaching in some cases beyond the depth of twenty feet below the present surface.
The natural oil of the Los Angeles oil fields is asphaltic in its base and even when freshly discharged is heavy and viscid. Exposed to the air it becomes under process of natural distillation a more and more tenacious tar-like residuum which, even in shallow accumulations is capable of entangling and holding animals which may blunder into it. In summer a surface accumulation of this material in natural depres- sion may become covered by a thin film of dust blown over it from the adjacent soil surface until the danger- ous tar pool appears as innocent as any other part of the open plain. In winter the rain water accumulates in the same natural depressions as does the oil. The result is that a stratum of relatively clear water comes to overlie and perfectly conceal the sticky mass. The land of little rain thus tempts the mammal or bird to destruction by its greatest desideratum, water.
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Let the imagination play but for a moment upon such a set of conditions-the innocent looking pitfall in dry weather; the water-baited trap tempting the thirsty after brief showers; the live-baited trap resulting in either case as the helpless victim seeks his liberty; finally the carrion-baited trap for the scavenger; a trap always set, always baited, always operative, universally tempting, insatiable. Not a pleasing picture is drawn by this excursion of the imagination, but to the investi- gator coming a millenium afterward and finding these remains sealed away in the perfect asphaltic preserva- tive, what a picture of the local Pleistocene fauna is revealed !
Perhaps no method of entombment recognized by the paleontologist could be more impartial in its capture and preservation of species. Hence the study of the fossil fauna of Rancho La Brea brings forth many interesting observations. The richness of fauna in that age of mammals, the Pleistocene, is beautifully evi- denced by the presence of mammoth, mastodon, ground sloth, camel, bison, horse, deer, bear, saber-toothed tiger, lion, puma, wolf, and others to the extent of more than fifty species. Associated with these powerful mammals were equally unusual birds. The great Teratornis, a raptorial bird larger than any other known flying bird living or extinct, tore with its immense eagle-like beak an unsavory sustenance from the dead bodies of these huge mammals. With him at the ignoble banquet were four species of true condors, the smallest equalling in size the living Andean condor. Attracted and ensnared by the same trap were six species of eagles instead of the meagre two we now boast
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in this region. Wading birds and swimmers were attracted by the surface pools of rain water or else in the half light were led to mistake the mirror surface of freshly outpoured oil for water and left their remains immortalized in the mud which gripped and held them. A turkey-like peacock inhabited the near by thickets and came to drink his destruction at the margin of such pools. Turtle doves, blackbirds, meadowlarks, flickers, owls, road runners, and a varied crew of other forms totalling sixty species, fell, at one time or another, as prey to this deceptive snare of ever ready bird lime.
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