generally is indefinite and ill defined
*
Plate II. Salt marshes, sand dunes, and sand spits.
Near mouth of Ballona Creek.
(cropped from border and page, printed orientation retained)
ex Walter C(urry) Mendenhall (1871-1957 *). Development of Underground Waters in the Western Coastal Plain Region of Southern California. USGS Water-Supply and Irrigation Paper No. 139. Series 0, Underground Waters, 42 (1905)
*
Stanford copy, no date of digitization.
The western section described here is crossed by none of the larger streams of the valley... It therefore contains a somewhat larger proportion of dry lands than the central and eastern areas. Its drainage generally is indefinite and ill defined, the valley of Ballona Creek being the only clearly marked drainage system in it. Along the coast is a belt of sand dunes...
(p 11)
Same volume contains Mendenhall's Water-Supply and Irrigation Papers 137 and 138, for the Eastern and Central coastal plain regions, respectively. More Mendenhall derivations, shortly.
Different views — of the Ballona wetlands and creek (1902) and beach and lagoon (1907) — here. Worth a look — both images and brief history — to understand Mendenhall's interestingly-cropped image.
"You're mistaken, Mrs. Rosen. There ain't a particle of romance in Vickie."
"But there are several kinds of romance, Mrs. Templeton. She may not have your kind."
— ex Willa Cather, "Old Mrs. Harris," in Obscure Destinies (1932)
tags: deserts; indefinites; salt; sand; water; Willa Cather; W. C. Mendenhall