78 ROMANCE OF GEOLOGY 



clays, are found, and seven such seams are of common occurrence. 

 Erect tree-trunks have sometimes been found. 



Of the Tertiary formations, the Miocene stretches over an 

 enormous area near the Foot Hills and in the Rockies. It covers 

 an area of nearly 1,400 square miles, between the Cypress Hills, 

 to the W., and the Swift Current Creek Plateau, to the E. The 

 Miocene beds rest usually upon the Laramie, but sometimes upon 

 the Pierre, always, however, unconformably. The Eocene seems 

 to be completely missing in all parts of the vast region treated of 

 in this i)aper, and the Pliocene is more or less doubtfully represen- 

 ted. It is never found resting on the Miocene, but always at much 

 lower levels. The deposits of Pliocene age are known as the 

 South Saskatchewan gravels. Hitherto they have appeared to be 

 destitute of organic remains, but are known by their relative 

 position to be intermediate in age between the Miocene and the 

 Quaternary ; in one or two places the admixture of Laurentian 

 and quartzite pebbles towards the top show a gradual blending 

 with the lowest glacial beds. They are, from their small extent 

 and barrenness in organic remains, of small comparative interest. 



The Miocene of the Rocky Mountains represents the " first 

 renewal of sedimentation, after the great period of mountain 

 making, and probably represents the deposits of ancient fresh- 

 water lakes.'' In the Cypress Hills district, the Miocene consists 

 chiefly of conglomerates made up of water-worn pebbles from the 

 quartzite formations of the Rocky Mountains. The area now 

 covered by the Cypress Hills has been changed from a depression 

 in Miocene times, into its present position of the highest plateau 

 of the plains, entirely by the arrest of denudation over its surface 

 by the hard conglomerate beds which cover it. The conglomerate 

 capping now overlooks, from a height of 2,000 feet, the lowest 

 part of the plains. Valuable vertebrate remains have been 

 obtained from these beds of extinct species of Perisodactyla, 

 Artiodactyla, and Rodentia. One of the most interesting speci- 

 mens belongs to the Creodont division of the primitive order of 

 Bunotheria — Hemipsalodon Grandis, a powerful and dangerous 

 carnivorous animal, with " a jaw more robust than that of any 

 existing carnivore." '■'" 



■ Professor Cope on the Vertebrata of the Cypress Hills. 



