[AMI] SYNOPSIS OF THE GEOLOGY OF CANADA 219 
and McConnell, southward from Alberta to the U. $S. boundary line ; 
eastward to Turtle mountain, in Manitoba; and northward to the 
Arctic circle in the MacKenzie river valley. The Fort Union beds or 
formation have also been recognized in the Souris River district. 
It is believed that about the beginning of the Tertiary or the close 
of the Cretaceous, the Rocky Mts. began to be uplifted, whilst the plains 
sank beneath the surface of the sea. Then were deposited on the gradu- 
ally sinking floor, the sandstones and shales of this series, in which 
occur the remains of deinosaurs, fresh-water shells, land plants, with 
occasional beds of coal. 
Miocene—In the Hand hills of the Prairie region, Mr. Tyrrell finds 
light-gray argillaceous marls interbedded with fine-grained sands, which 
pass upward into a bed of quartzite pebbles more or less held together in 
some places by a hard calcareous cement, forming a compact conglo- 
merate. These strata resemble the argillites of the Cypress hills, first 
examined by Dr. Hector, in 1859, and are, no doubt, equivalent to the 
Miocene of the Cypress hills in the Assiniboia region, described by Mr. 
McConnell, known as Miocene conglomerates, etc. It was from the 
Cypress hills region that Mr. McConnell and Mr. Weston obtained the 
interesting series of fossil mammalian remains, described by the late 
Prof. E. D. Cope and referred to the White River division of the Ter- 
tiary, according to United States geologists or Lower Miocene. The 
Saskatchewan gravels are doubtfully referred to the Pliocene by some 
geologists. 
It was possibly during this or a somewhat later period that many 
of the Æolian deposits of the west were laid down. 
The Cordilleran Region—In the Kamloops district of British 
Columbia, Dr. Dawson refers certain conglomerates and sandstones to 
the Oligocene, under the terms “Coldwater Group” and “Similkameen” 
beds. In the “Tranquille Beds” he describes and includes volcanic 
basalts and bedded tuffs ascribed to the Harlier and Later Miocene 
respectively. In the same region, unconformably over the T'ranquille 
beds or formation, conglomerates of Early Pliocene age are also recorded. 
In the vicinity of the city of Vancouver, Mr. James Richardson, Dr. 
Dawson, and Mr. Amos Bowman, have examined the plant-bearing beds 
of this district, which form part of the “ Puget group.” The strata in 
question form part of the lowland about the mouth of the Fraser river, 
extending northward to Burrard inlet. These strata are at least 3000 
feet in thickness, holding carbonaceous matter, and more or less lignite 
coal at different horizons. Dr. Dawson further notes the possible 
Sec, IV., 1900. 12, 
