44 



LARAMIE FLORA OF THE DENVER BASIN. 



an exploration from Fort Simpson, on the 

 Pacific coast, to Edmonton, on the Saskatche- 

 wan, embracing the northern part of British 

 Columbia and the Peace River countiy." In 

 discussing the Peace River section he several 

 times alluded to the Laramie as following the 

 Fox Hills conformably, but whether he in- 

 tended to refer it to the Cretaceous or the 

 Tertiary is not quite clear, though in a "com- 

 parative table of Cretaceous rocks" he made 

 the so-called Laramie equivalent to the Fort 

 Union and Judith River beds of Nebraska and 

 Missouri rivers and also to the "Lignite 

 Tertiary" of the forty-ninth parallel. 



A year or two later, in his preliminary paper 

 on the "Geology of the Bow and Belly River 

 region," Dawson *'" took occasion to define the 

 use of Laramie as follows: 



The term Laramie is used in a general sense for the Upper 

 Cretaceous or lower Eocene beds which overlie the Fox 

 Hills series (Cretaceous No. 4). It is not intended by its 

 use to differentiate the beds so named from those of the 

 Judith Ri^er and Fort Union series, with which thry may 

 be found to blend as the inter\ening district is more com- 

 pletely explored. 



In describmg the general arrangement of 

 the beds in the Bell}' River region, Dawson 

 gave the following section: 



The complete report on the "country in 

 the vicinity of Bow and Belly rivers, North- 

 's Dawson, O. M., Canada Geol. Survey Rept. Progress for 1S80-1S82, 

 p. 2b, 1883. 



west Territor}'," was published by Dawson *" 

 in 1885. In this report the descriptions of 

 the "Laramie" are amplified and the thick- 

 ness given. Thus the Porcupine Hills beds are 

 given a thickness of 2,500 feet, the Willow 

 Creek beds 450 feet, and the St. Mary River 

 beds 2,800 feet. 



Dawson *'' continued his explorations in the 

 Canadian Rocky Mountains, his report pub- 

 lished in 18S6 includmg that portion from the 

 international boundary northward to the head- 

 waters of Red Deer River. In this report 

 he alluded many times to the presence of the 

 "Laramie" but always with the signification 

 already given to it. 



In the same volume R. G. McConnell *^ pub- 

 lished a "Report on the Cj'press Hills, Wood 

 Mountain, antl adjacent coimtry in Assiniboia," 

 in which he referred to the current uncertainty 

 regarding the position of the "Laramie" and 

 adopted the view that it is probably transi- 

 tional between Cretaceous and Tertiary. In 

 the Cypress Hills and vicinity, according to 

 McConnell, it is apparently conformable to the 

 Fox Hills sandstone and of small thickness, but 

 in the Wood Mountain region it was found 

 to be better represented and in some places 

 capable of being divided into three "somewhat 

 dissimilar groups." He quoted extensivelj' 

 from Dawson's report of 1875. 



In the followmg year (1887) J. B. Tyrrell" 

 presented an important paper on northern 

 Alberta and adjacent districts in Assiniboia 

 and Saskatchewan, in which he made a com- 

 plete realinemcnt of the "Laramie," although 

 still usmg it as a group term. He established 

 the Edmonton and Paskapoo series in substitu- 

 tion for the names proposed by Dawson. As 

 these terms have now come into wide usage 

 the formations may be described at some length. 



The Edmonton series, which comprises the 

 lower 700 or 800 feet of Dawson's St. Mary 

 River series, was described as follows: 



This is perhaps, on the whole, the most characteristic 

 series of the entire region, for though its thickness, wher- 

 ever determinable, was never found to exceed 700 feet, 

 the horizontal position of the strata causes it to underlie 

 a very large extent of country. 



« Dawson, O. M., Canada Gool. Survey Ropt. Progress for 1882-1884, 

 pp. 1-159C, 1885. 



" Dawson, G. M., Canada Geol. and Nat. Hist. Survey Ann. Ropt., 

 new ser., vol. 1, for 1885, pp. 1-169B, 1886. 



•» Idem, pp. 1-85C. 



"Canada Geol. and Nat. Hist. Survey Ann. Rept., new ser., vol. 2, 

 for 1886, pp. 1-176E, 1887. 



