J. S. NEWBERRY — THE LARAMIE GROUP. 527 



Meek, Professor J. J. Stevenson, and myself, and the arguments in favor of it have 

 recently been much strengthened. 



The relations of the Laramie group to the coal-bearing rocks of Puget sound and 

 Vancouver island are very intimate. They have many species of fossil plants in 

 common, and it is certain that a considerable portion of the ten thousand feet of coal- 

 bearing strata on Puget sound is of Laramie age. The upper part of the series at 

 Bellingham bay contains some Fort Union plants and is doubtless Tertiary. 



The relations of the Laramie to the " Lignjtic " groupof Mississippi are as yet doubt- 

 ful ; a few species of fossil plants are apparently common to both, but the molluscan 

 fauna is entirely distinct. It is to be hoped that the able geologists now at work with 

 so much success in Arkansas and Texas will make collections of the Lignite flora 

 that will permit full comparisons to be made with the flora of the Laramie. 



In conclusion, I would say that an effort has been made to distinguish the Laramie 

 from the Fort Union group by assuming that the mollusks of the Laramie are marine 

 or brackish water, while those of the Fort Union are fresh-water species. This dis- 

 tinction will not hold ; for at Cedar City, Utah, one of the coal seams of the Laramie 

 group contains and is overlain by sheets of fresh-water marl composed of shells of 

 U/tio, Goniobasis, Physa, Paludina, etc., and above these is a stratum of calcareous 

 sandstone containing Inoceramus and a bed of oyster shells four feet in thickness. 



Professor E. D. Cope : I would like to ask what the geographical extent of the 

 Fort Union beds may be ? 



Dr. Newberry: I do not think that question can be answered fully, because there 

 is a large area in Wyoming and Montana which has not yet been explored. The 

 southern limit of the Fort Union group and its contact with the Laramie may perhaps 

 be found in that section. In Colorado I have never seen any Fort Union strata. 

 They extend far into the Canadian territory, as they have been recognized in many 

 localities by the Canadian geologists, and have been called the " Porcupine Hills " or 

 " Paskapoo " series. In Mr. Tyrrell's report for 188G (on northern Alberta) you will 

 find an interesting discussion of this question, and a list of the plants of the Paskapoo 

 beds is given. They are all Fort Union species. The t; Edmonton series " is appar- 

 ently the representative of part of our Laramie. 



Professor Angelo Heilprin: I would like to ask Professor Newberry whether, 

 acccording to the interpretation which he has given, the Laramie, as a Cretaceous 

 formation, disappears; and, if this is the case, I should like further to ask what hori- 

 zon in the Cretaceous the Laramie represents — whether it is the equivalent of what 

 has always been considered the uppermost Cretaceous or whether there is something 

 imposed upon it? So far as I have seen, from the evidence that Professor Newberry 

 submits, the link between the Cretaceous and the Tertiary totally disappears. 



Dr. Newberry : In my judgment the Laramie is the top of the Cretaceous system. 

 I do not know why it should be called post-Cretaceous. It is true there must be 

 somewhere connecting links between the Cretaceous and Tertiary, as the streams of 

 time and life have flowed on continuously and geological agents have been acting 

 incessantly. So we shall ultimately find passage-beds bridging the interval between 

 the Mesozoic and Cenozoic ; but I know of no evidence that the Laramie is such a 

 passage-bed. In the lower part it contains Fox Hills fossils, and thus is linked to the 

 Colorado group, but if we separate it from the Fort Union group it has really no con- 

 necting links with the Tertiary. 



The physical history of the Cretaceous system in the interior of the continent is 



