USA > California > Mendocino County > History of Mendocino County, California : comprising its geography, geology, topography, climatography, springs and timber > Part 11
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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
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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 proceeded 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 for- mations, and comprise all stages from the finest sand to boulders and frag- ments 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 fast- ened into the body of 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 dur- ing 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 inbed- ded in the ice 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, so care- fully 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 existence 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 ele- phant, rhinoceros, horse, hyena, cave bear, reindeer and Irish elk. With these were found weapons of chipped flint, and harpoons, needles, and bod- kins 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
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human beings had been there, and prepared their food for eating 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 mentioned 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 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 mold 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 drop- ped half-pence of yesterday's visitors. How long a time transpired 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 preeminently 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, 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 with never a change. The earth was all virgin soil and very rich and productive. The air was fresh, brac- ing, 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. Far 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 paradise. It was a table-land, at the head waters of the rivers that flow into the Uxine 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
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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 predacious quadrupeds, and the animals which did inhabit the region had nothing to fear, for man was originally purely vegetarian in his diet, and in this paradise man found ample supplies of wholesome food. His requirements for shelter were met by weaving bowers of the overhanging trees. The streams furnished gold for ornament, shells for vessels, and agate for his few and simple cutting 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 to 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 astonishment.
We will now pass to a consideration of the geological features of Men- docino county. Geologists all recognize the fact that the entire coast range of mountains is of comparatively recent formation. It is very probable that when the chronology of the Bible began, this whole section was under water, and the eastern shores of the Pacific extended far up the sides of the main Sierra range. Slowly the western side of the continent arose from beneath the flood waters of the ocean, volcanic action thrust the ranges of mountains and hills to their present altitudes and outlines. Our California soil is full of alkaline and saline matter, showing that the day is not far past when the salt sea water covered it all. The adobe soil so common here, is but the slimy sedimentary deposit of such an era. No traces of striation appear on any of the mountains or boulders, hence it is evident that at the time of the glacial period these mountains were far beneath the level of the sea. No tree that grows in the forests of the Coast Range would carry us back more than a thousand years, and the majority do not extend back over three hundred. Volcanic action has been very recent indeed, for the craters are still bare, and the courses of the streams of lava as they flowed through the country are still easily traceable, and the ashes remain about in the same condition as when belched forth from the heart of the earth, not enough time having yet elapsed to allow them to assimulate with, and become soil. Hot springs burst forth from beds of lava on every hand. The Geysers of Sonoma county are a very striking example, and no place on the Pacific coast is more fraught with interest to the scientific student, and none so well repays a visit from the tourist and pleasure-seeker. The Vichy hot springs, a few miles east of Ukiah City, well up from a bed of lava charged with sulphur, soda, and iron, coming evidently from the region of some long since extinguished crater. A wonderful exhibition of volcanic action can be seen a few miles east of Booneville, in Anderson valley, on the road leading
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to Ukiah. Here an immense volume of lava and ashes has been deposited, and has rushed southward over the face of the country, leaving traces of its path way, still plainly discernable to the present day. The same evidences are to be found on the road leading from Cahto to Westport, and it is to be inferred that it is a part of the pathway of the same lava stream. Whence it came is at present unknown, but its source could be easily traced out. A large percentage of the rock forming the mountains of Mendocino county, are of volcanic origin, being comprised mostly of trap, basalt, and volcanic tufa. It is true that along the ocean shore the rock is mostly of a sand- stone formation, and is easily worn away by the action of the waves, mak- ing great caverns. At the Point Arena light-house can be seen a fair sample of the action of the water on this soft sandstone. About one hundred feet from the extreme point, there is a hole in the earth, which extends down to the level of the sea, connecting with a tunnel which opens into the ocean. This sandstone formation has, at some period of the earth's existence, been thrown upon its edge at an angle of nearly ninety degrees, and some of the strata seem much softer than the others, and these soft seams wash out and form the caverns spoken of above. Gradually the cavern is worn out entirely across a point, and then it becomes a small island, entirely detached from the main-land. There evidently was a time when Point Arena extended as far into the sea as what is now known as "wash rocks;" but gradually, year after year, has the soft rock succumbed to the action of the waves until nothing but a reef remains to mark the site of the former headland. All along the Mendocino coast are to be seen these little islands; and a beautiful result of this action can be seen a few miles south of Point Arena, where the entire rock has been washed down to about tide level, and the beach, if it may be so called, presents the appear- ance of a deeply furrowed field.
Another wonderful and interesting phase of wave action is to be found in the long stretch of sand beach extending from Pudding creek to Ten-mile river. The ocean margin was originally low and marshy here, and the sands of the sea began to be washed out upon the beach, and to be swept back into the interior by the winds. There is a strip of about ten miles of this beach, and the bed of sand extends back from the sea from one to three miles, and will average a depth of perhaps fifty feet. This gigantic dune is traveling now at the rate of several rods a year, covering up trees, fences, and houses, in its onward and remorseless march. One great peculiarity about it is, that at times a peculiar white sand will wash up, which forms a crust as hard as rock, and a team and heavily laden wagon can be driven on it the same as on a floor of marble. But this only lasts a day or so, when it is covered with a coarse, loose brown sand. Whence comes this great volume of sand, and why it should creep out from the bed of old ocean at this particular point, are questions which puzzle the brain of the scientist, especially the phenomenon of the hard white sand.
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Another interesting geological occurrence is the formation of great boulder beds, which are sometimes met with, a striking example of which occurs on the road south of Willitsville, along the southern Walker valley grade. Here, a huge mass of boulders, extending in size from marbles to several feet in diameter, have been formed into one solid mass almost as hard as rock itself, the interstices being filled with a slimy clay, which seasoned as firmly as water cement, which indeed it was in point of fact. But the question may arise, Whence came these boulders? Evidently they were formed by the action of the water, as they are of a kind similar to the rock in the adjacent mountains, and present no striations, hence could not have been the result of glacial action.
Passing from the general to the special geological features of Mendocino county, we will name and describe the various minerals to be found in its borders :-
Coal of a good quality has been found in at least two sections of the county, viz .: In Sanel township, near McDonald's place, and in Round valley. The out-cropping of the vein in the latter place was from six to ten feet in width. Could this coal be easily marketed, it would yield a great amount of fuel. It is, however, similar to all the coal on this coast,-lignite or brown; and as it does not occur in the carboniferous formation of the earth, it can hardly be called true coal. It is as one born out of due time. The days for the formation of true coals had gone by when this coast was developed to the right conditions for the formation of a coal-field, hence the coal here is not coal at all, in the full sense of the word. It is hardly probable that a rich vein of true coal underlies the upper formations, for if such were the case, in all of the upheavals and eruptions which have occurred on this coast some traces of it would have been revealed ere now.
Petroleum, which is very nearly allied to coal, has been found quite extensively in several places in the county. The first vein located was at Point Arena, which was in 1864. This vein was so rich with petroleum, that several gallons flowed from it daily. At Usal there was also a large vein of it discovered in 1865, but as no permanent work was done at either of these places, it is to be presumed that the oil did not flow in paying quantities.
Quicksilver .- This metal has been found in small quantities in some por- tions of the county, and it stands to reason that there should be quite large bodies of it, especially near the eastern border, as the mountain ranges there are so closely allied with the ranges of Napa and Lake counties in which it. abounds. This metal usually appears in the form of cinnabar, which is, in its composition, 812 grains of quicksilver to 18} grains of sulphur. When it occurs free from sulphur it is said to be native, and the Rattlesnake mine, in Sonoma county, between Cloverdale and the Mendocino county line, is an
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example of such a mine. In this place the pure globules of mercury are interspersed through so't talcose rock.
Borax .- Borate of sodium is found in much of the mineral spring waters of this county, but the amount is not great enough to pay for the reduction.
Umbers und Ochres .- These mineral substances, used extensively for painting purposes, occur frequently in the county. Red Mountain, above Cahto, is composed of terra de Sienna, and could be worked to good advan- tage.
Petrifuctions .- Petrifactions are very common all over this coast, yet strange to say, fossils are not so common as at the East, especially in the Mississippi valley. A wonderful geological and chemical transformation occurs in the process of petrifaction, and it is well worthy the careful study of any one to observe the peculiarities of the operation.
Argentiferous Ores .- Silver bearing lead is quite common in several portions of the county, and will yet be quite an industry. Silver also occurs in connection with copper, an example of which was the ledge located in 1863, in Sanel township, known as the Independent.
Copper .- Copper has been found in several portions of the county, both in composition with other ores and in a native state. In the ledge above referred to-the Independent-the ore yielded forty per cent of copper. There was a fine lead of it opened near Point Arena, in 1863. From some cause it has not yet been discovered in quantities large enough to pay for working it.
Iron .- This useful metal is found all through the mountains of this county, the ores consisting mainly of chromic, which is found on the southern border of the county, where the rock is mostly serpentine, hematite, magnetic and titanic. No iron mines have, however, been worked to any extent in this county, from the fact that fuel is too scarce at home and it is too far to freight the ore to the city.
Gold .- Gold in quite large quantities has been found in this county, and from time to time there have been periodieal gold excitements. This inetal occurs in quartz and in gravel, and in sulphurets. It is quite probable that a time will come when the gold mines of this section will be very success- fully worked.
Platinum .- This most rare of all the metals of earth, which enters at all largely into our economics, has been discovered in this county near Calpella. It is probable, however, that it will never yield enough to pay for working.
Plumbago .- Rich specimens of this mineral have been discovered in the county, but in no paying quantities.
Sulphur .- This substance is to be found in composition with other min- erals and in solution in mineral springs.
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Soda .- This mineral is to be found in the form of carbonates, sulphates and chlorides, in several combinations, and in all mineral waters.
Lime .- Sulphate of lime (gypsum), carbonates and magnesian lime are found in small quantities all over the county.
Manganese .- The peroxyd of manganese occurs in its massive form in several localities, and it could doubtless be worked to good advantage.
Other Metals .- Tracings of many other minerals and metals are to be found upon a close analysis of the waters and soils of the county, such as alumnium, chromium, etc.
MINERALS .- Of the six hundred simple minerals which have been dis- covered in the earth's surface, only nine form any considerable portion of it. These are quartz, feldspar, mica, limestone, hornblende, serpentine, gypsum, tale and oxyd of iron. Of these quartz, or silica, is the most abundant of all, comprising at least three-fourths of all the crust of the earth. In the granite it forms one of the three elements, in all the sandstones of the world it constitutes the sole element, and in all the soils and vegetables it forms a large percentage. Quartz crystallizes beautifully, and is found in all shades imaginable, owing to its ready union with foreign substances. The red shades are the results of combination with the oxyd of iron ; the purple has manganese, or perhaps cobalt, as the col- oring matter. In Mendocino county the very waysides are strewn with gems, in the shape of quartz crystals, which would cause the heart of the specimen hunter of the Eastern States to leap for very joy. The boy, list- lessly driving his cows home from pasture at nightfall, hurls beautiful and glistening jewels after them, little caring for their loveliness. The more highly esteemed varieties of quartz crystals are the amethyst, rose quartz, prase, smoky and milk quartz, chalcedony, carnelian, agate, onyx, jasper and bloodstone. Most all of these varieties occur in greater or less amounts throughout the county.
Feldspar .- This is one of the elements which enter into the composition of granite, and is quite common in other forms, though not at all approxi- mating quartz. When decomposed it forms a clay well adapted to the pur- poses of pottery and brick-making, which is known in commerce as kaolin. Spar is not found in any great bodies in Mendocino county, although it is scattered throughout the whole of it. '
Mica .- This is the third element in granite, and is discerned from spar and quartz by always being crystallized in flakes, and is usually black, form - ing the black specks observable in most of granite rock. There is little or no mica in Mendocino county, as far as is known ; although it would be but natural for there to be quantities of it.
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Limestones .- There are no very extensive bodies of any sort of limestone in Mendocino county. The same, however, may be said of the most of Cal- ifornia, with the exception of Santa Cruz, Marin and Solano counties. Marble is the most valuable form of limestone, though not at all the most useful.
Hornblende .- This is a tough mineral, generally dark colored, and occurs in all volcanic rock. It is found in large quantities all through the mount- ains of Mendocino county. It is not useful for any of the general economic purposes.
Serpentine .- This mineral, in a coarse, massive form, occurs in large bodies in the mountains of Mendocino county. It is, however, a brittle rock, and of no particular use to man, except some choice varieties, like verd-antique, which is not found here.
Oxyd of Iron .- This is the matter which is commonly known as iron rust, and which gives color to almost all the stones and clays which come under our daily observation. In the red sandstone or the yellow clay the coloring matter is the same. In the red brick, or the yellow "settlings" on the rock over which the water from a mineral spring has passed, the color is alone attributable to the oxyd of iron. Iron, however, seldom occurs in a body as purely the oxyd, hence in this form it is not found in this county.
Granite .- Strange as it may appear, although the entire surface of Men- docino county is covered with mountains, yet the eruptions did not extend deep enough, or were not sufficiently violent, to expose the bed-rock of the universe-granite. In fact, but little granite is to be found along the coast counties. In Marin there is an outcropping at Point Reyes and at Tomales Point, and in Sonoma county at Bodega Head, but not north of that in the State, so far as known at the present time.
SPRINGS .- The springs of Mendocino county are a marvel, and to write of their beauty and usefulness, would require the pen of a poet. They may be divided into three general classes, as follows: Pure cold water, cold mineral water, and thermal mineral water. Of the first there are thou- sands and thousands. Every hill and mountain side teems with them, and the weary traveler and his thirsty beast find streams of pure water, cool and fresh, gushing from the wayside banks, and gathered into troughs for his convenience. The flow of these springs vary from a few gallons a day to barrels per minute. The largest flow, perhaps, in the county, is from the spring, the stream from which crosses the road a few miles north of Clover- dale, on the new toll route to Ukiah. The amount of water which comes pouring forth from this place, is something wonderful to contemplate, and what is more strange, the yield seems to be always the same. Winter's flood nor summer's drouth seems to have no appreciable effect upon it.
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Whence comes all this grand body of pure water which is yearly poured from the mountain sides of Mendocino county? No one knows! It is evident that the fountain head is far away from the outlet, and far above it also. The snow melting on the far away Sierras, must be the grand center . of supply, and when we come to contemplate what a wonderful system of channels and veins there are in the surface of the earth, and how perfectly they all work, it is a fit subject for reverential meditation. How it gushes from the rock, in its pure and crystalline beauty, glittering and glistening in the sunshine as it dances down the hill-side, refreshing and cheering the thirsty world, making the flowers to spring up in their glorious grandeur, making the grass to put forth its greenest shoots the whole year through. What a glorious mission on earth has this spring of water! To man, and beast, and bird, and tree, and shrub, and grass, and flower, and fruit-to all that exists on the the face of the earth, it proves a grand, glorious, inestimable boon.
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