IN THE NORTH WEST OF CANADA. 75 



formations of the N.W. and of British Columbia are of Cretaceous 

 age, and when comparatively undisturbed, present the qualities of 

 lignites, as in the valleys of the Bow and Belly rivers, near the 

 Foot Hills of the Rockies. The lignite beds have been covered 

 in this region with great sheets of boulder drift, and can only be 

 seen where the rivers have cut deeply into their banks. But in 

 the Rockies, the Paleozoic rocks have been thrown bodily on the 

 top of the Cretaceous strata ; the coal has been pressed and 

 heated into true anthracite, and in some places it has been 

 crushed and pulverised so as to be useless for practical purposes. 

 Dr. Dawson says : — "The ancient crystalline rocks form no part 

 of this district, which chiefly consists of Cambrian, Devonian, and 

 Carboniferous strata, violently flexed, and often completely over- 

 turned. The Lower Cretaceous, which, previous to the great era 

 of mountain elevation, had been at the surface, are completely 

 folded in and crushed by the older rocks." 



The Carboniferous strata of the Rockies contain, as before 

 said, no coal, and bear evidence of having been " laid down in a 

 deep ocean, far from land." 



The mountain limestone affords the most beautiful scenery in 

 British Columbia, of which the castellated rocks, called the Crow's 

 Nest, the Beehive, the Chief, and Castle mountains, are the 

 finest examples. 



Table of the rocks near the South Kootanie Pass, which are 

 representative of the entire region : — 



Triassic and Per- H. ' Fawn-coloured flaggy beds loo feet. 



mo-Triassic (i. Beds, chiefly red sandstone, 



ripple-marked 300 „ 



F. Magnesian limestone 200 ,, 



E. Amygloidal trap 50 — 100 ,, 



Carboniferous and I). Compact bluish limestone. 

 Devonian Crinoi- Forms some of the bold- 



dal limestone est [)eaks and crags of 



the mountains, and rests 

 unconformably on Series 

 C. 1000 „ 



