No. 7.] NOTES ON FOSSIL PLANTS. 447 



The oldest land has been that of the Gold Range, and the 

 Carboniferous deposits laid down east and west of this barrier dif- 

 fer widely in character. The Carboniferous closed with a distur- 

 bance which shut the sea out from a great area east ofthe Gold 

 Eange, in which the red gypsiferous and saline beds of the Jura- 

 trias were formed. In the Peace Kiver region, however, marine 

 Triassic beds are found on both sides of the Rocky Mountains. 



A great disturbance, producing the Sierra Nevada and Van- 

 couver ranges, closed the Triassic and Jurassic period. The 

 shore line of the Pacific of th|3 Cretaceous in British Columbia lay 

 east of the Coast Range, and the sea communicated by the Peace 

 River region with the Cretaceous Mediterranean of the great 

 plains. The Coast Pi,ang8 and the Rocky Mountains are probably 

 in great part due to a post-Cretaceous disturbance, though the 

 last-named range existed before the Cretaceous period in the 

 Peace River reiiion. 



No Eocene deposits have been found in the province. The 

 Miocene of the interior plateau is probably homologous with 

 King's Pah-Ute lake ofthe 40th parallel Miocene. In the Plio- 

 cene the country appears to have stood higher above the sea-level 

 than at present, and during this time the fiords ofthe coast were 

 probably worn out. 



Abstract of Notes by Principal Dawson on Fossil 

 Plants Collected by Mr. Selwyn, F.R.S., in the Lignite 

 Tertiary Formation, at Roches Perci^es, Souris River, 

 Manitoba. — The Lignite Tertiary Group of Manitoba and 

 elsewhere in the Western Plains, rests immediately on the Upper 

 Cretaceous, and holds extensive deposits of valuable Lignite, 

 associated with shale and sandstone containing numerous remains 

 of plants. This fiora resembles very closjely in its aspect that of 

 the Miocene Tertiary of Europe, but its stratigraphical position 

 and animal fossils seem to indicate that its actual age is greater 

 than this. Various attempts have been made to subdivide it 

 and to separate portions of diflferent ages ; but, so far, there is 

 reason to suspect that the subdivisions are merely local, and that 

 the whole belongs to a period of transition between the Cretaceous 

 and Tertiary ages. 



Mr. Selwyn's specimens are remarkable for their good state of 

 preservation, being enclosed in a hard arenaceous and ferruginous 



