Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 69.djvu/306

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302
POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Castle Bock to the west. Down from the saddle between these runs Stevens Creek (Arroyo de San José de Cupertino) and down this creek went the earthquake crack, tearing up the road behind it. and throwing down landslides from every steep slope. Stevens Creek is made up from the union of two streams which meet from opposite directions. The crack descends the one and remounts impartially in the valley of the other. Both streams follow old earthquake tracks. Over another saddle the crack goes to Saratoga Creek. Across it and over another saddle it follows Campbell Creek, draining its reservoir. Thence it crosses obliquely the valley of Los Gatos Creek, over the hills of which Bret Harte wrote—

The ridges 'round Los Gatos Creek
Arched their spines in a feline fashion,

in the earthquake of 1818. Into this creek, from the Feely ranch.

Earthquake Rift, Morrill's Ranch, Skylands, Santa Cruz County.

some ten acres of land was thrown in a great landslide. At the head of the creek is the long tunnel which cuts under the saddle, from Wright's to Laurel. This tunnel has been the source of endless trouble since it was made, and for the reason that the rock in the mountain through which it passes is made up of minute chips of rock. No wonder, for the earthquake crack follows the mountain ridge, which is here narrow and low. It cuts tunnel and railroad track at right angles, and every earthquake disturbance is sure to make matters worse. Already forty feet of crushed rock has fallen from above what was the