The Littoral of Northern California as a Geographic Province

24z25 -^240. R--, E^--N The littoral of northern California is an ,i .-..,O.....a.. ..--... ..N.:. Caen:t .^ : extremely attenuated natural and cultural Crescent Cit .::: .:.::: ..:. : . .::: .:::::::: :: Cet;yt:: . ... province, stretching from San Francisco T nda ; -Bay for more than 300 miles and ranging 4TrA.idad. .: ''~:' in width from less than a mile to more atl sically between Point Reyes and Cape Mendocino, though the area tributary to .::.:. :.: Humboldt Bay is of greatest importance Rockpor ...... .... ::. . tagp '.''.. : -' as regards production and population. RaspseraG i . Physically the littoral is a series of Russian Gul d .Albionc 3::..'::::::: ::: M Aenocino Ane.ik 9-E grassy wind-swept benches carved out of -39 re : i::!:: u ... the seaward border of an elevated and Stewarts P1 Fort Ro. maturely dissected peneplain lying from odea Hd i600oo to 2000 feet above sea level. In romalesB ' -38 P.Reyse% contrast to the coastal benches the higher Drakes pJ rugged belt is heavily timbered and .MILES. B l''01 + ~ sparsely populated. The boundary between EOGR REVIEW, APR!93 the two belts is well defined by the lower FIG. I-The littoral of northern tree line which tends to follow the inner California. edge of the most conspicuous terrace. Commercially as well as physiographically the communities of the littoral face the sea. In spite of the hazards of the coast, freight moves in and out most easily through the scattered small ports. Only Eureka and Fort Bragg have railway connections with the interior and San Francisco, and the line to Eureka was not completed until I915. Except for about sixty miles of coast near Cape Mendocino, the littoral settlements have land connections only by a road, graded and mostly surfaced with gravel, which tends to be rough or even stony in places, because the wind sweeps off the finer loose material. Toward Cape Mendocino the coast is so bold and steep, and the settlements so few, that the road strikes inland. The coast between Cape Mendocino and Point Arena also lacks easy access to the interior, as the few roads across the dissected highland are mostly narrow, steep, and ungraded. From the Russian

Archaeology · Geography · Littoral zone · Archaeology and Natural History · Botany, Ecology, and Taxonomy Studies · Geology · Oceanography · Rangeland and Wildlife Management