[DAWSON ] VANCOUVER TERTIARY PLANTS 139 
water forms, indicating the prevalence of estuarine conditions. They 
naturally give fewer indications as to age than those afforded by marine 
species, but they are of Tertiary rather than Cretaceous aspect. They 
are described by White in the paper above referred to. The plant 
remains will be noticed in comparison with those of British Columbia in 
the sequel. 
This great estuarine deposit extends from Burrard’s Inlet, in British 
Columbia, nearly to the Columbia River, and from the coast-line to the 
Cascade range, within which its beds rise to a height estimated at from 
800 to 5,000 feet above the level of the sea. 
It is evident from the above statements that the Puget group of the 
west occupies a stratigraphical position. and presents conditions not very 
dissimilar from those of the Upper Laramie east of the mountains. The 
species of mollusks found in it, and to some extent those of plants also, 
are different from those of the Laramie. But this is to be expected in 
estuarine deposits. which, though identical in age, belong to bodies of 
water emptying respectively into the Pacific and the Atlantic, and sepa- 
rated by a considerable breadth of continuous and probably elevated 
land. 
Assuming, then, that we have to deal with a formation overlying 
the Chico and perhaps the Tejon series of the United States geologists, 
in California and Oregon, and the Nanaimo formation of Vancouver 
Island, and indicating a transition from marine to estuarine conditions, 
the question comes up of the identity of the Nanaimo group in age with 
the more southern Cretaceous formations above named. On this point 
White. after comparing the fossils described by Whiteaves from the 
-Nanaimo beds with those farther south, fully admits their correspond- 
ence with those of the Chico, but not with those of the Tejon, which have 
a decidedly newer aspect, and may be regarded as Eocene. There is, 
however, in California a transition between the Chico and Tejon, but 
both appear to underlie the Puget, unless, indeed, the latter is in part an 
estuarine equivalent of the marine beds of the former. In like manner, 
in British Columbia the estuarine conditions of the Burrard’s Bay beds 
seem immediately to succeed the Nanaimo formation. This would be 
natural if the Puget beds represent the estuary of a northern river. 
This absence of marine fossils from the beds succeeding the charac- 
teristic Upper Cretaceous, raises the same doubts as to age which have 
affected the Laramie beds east of the mountains. Hence, in both cases, 
the fossil plants become of much importance, while the fact that they 
have been variously referred to Cretaceous, Eocene and Miocene ages has 
tended to throw discredit on their evidence. In so far as Canada is con- 
cerned, it has now been established that the Upper Laramie or Fort Union 
beds underlie a formation containing animal fossils of the White River 
