110 STEVENSON— INTERRELATIONS OF FOSSIL FUELS. 



Eocene, crustal movements followed, which formed the Rocky 

 Mountains. But the energy was expended in a narrow area so 

 that at the east, even in the Foothills, one finds nothing exposed 

 below the Middle Cretaceous. 



The conditions noted by Dowling are very distinct in southern 

 Alberta. McEvoy, in the mountain portion of the Crowsnest coal 

 field, found the Upper Cretaceous merely a mass of sandstone and 

 conglomerate, 7,000 to 8,000 feet thick and without coal. In another 

 part of the Rocky Mountain area, near the International Boundary, 

 McConnell saw no coal in the upper part of the section, which con- 

 tains great beds of conglomerate, some of them 150 feet thick. It 

 , seems to be impossible to differentiate the formations in this area ; 

 but McLearn, at a short distance eastward in the Foothills, recog- 

 nized the Bearpaw and the Belly River, the latter being the equiva- 

 lent of Judith River, Claggett and Eagle.^" The sea-invasion during 

 Claggett did not reach much of southern Alberta and did not extend 

 so far westward as did that during the Bearpaw. No coal was seen 

 in the basal sandstone of the Belly River formation, but 4 thin seams 

 were seen in the overlying 50 feet of clay and shale. The higher 

 deposits are sandstones and shales, alternations of " sand bottoms 

 and clay bottoms " with Unio and gastropods in the sands and gastro- 

 pods in the clays. The faunules are fresh-water. Mackenzie^* 

 saw no coal in the Allison (Belly River) formation on Oldman 

 River, where it is 2,000 feet thick and consists chiefly of sandstones, 

 massive to shaly and often cross-bedded. 



Dawson^^ examined an extensive area within southeastern 

 Alberta, mainly along the Bow and Belly Rivers, but reaching into 

 the Milk River region near the International Boundary. He offered 

 tentative names for the formations. The Pierre shales, 750 feet 

 thick, contain intercalated beds of sandstone, which increase toward 

 the mountains. A coal zone was seen at the top on Bow River and 

 another at the base on Belly River ; the latter was seen also at several 



03 J. McEvoy, Ann. Reps. Geol. Survey Canada, Vol. XIII., 1900, Part A, 

 pp. 84-^8; R. G. McConnell, the same, 1886, Part D, pp. 16, 17; F. H. McLearn, 

 Summary Report, 1914, pp. 62, 63. 



9* J. D. Mackenzie, Summary Report for 1912, pp. 235-246. 



05 G. M. Dawson, Geol. Survey of Canada, Reps. Prog, for 1882-83-84, 

 Part C, pp. 36, 52, 62, 69, 71. 



