[dowling] turtle mountain COAL 41 



country where there is little change in the strike. Although there is 

 considerable variation in dip near Moosejaw, yet the data mentioned 

 above are sufficient to show that the offshore deposits from the brackish 

 water shores of the Belly River period, continue as far as Moosejaw. 



The Lower Pierre shale deposited before the Belly River period 

 appears to be from 500 to 600 feet thick in the Moosejaw well. The 

 same thickness of shale above the Colorado in the Ralph well is occu- 

 pied by marine shales and above that sandy and gritty marine shales. 

 The last evidence of the shallow water period. This disappearance 

 of the Belly River rocks and the substitution of marine sands when 

 compared with the section east of Taylorton occurs in the division 

 of the Pierre, called Odanah by Tyrrell, and it is doubtful if in the 

 Taylorton well more than a trace of sand remains in the division. 



In the eastern part of the section the Odanah is a hard marine 

 shale, and the only sandy beds appearing in it occur in the Fleming 

 well on the western border of Manitoba, seventy-five miles to the 

 northwest of Deloraine. In it the conditions given in the Ralph well 

 are nearly duplicated. This might be interpreted as indicating that 

 the direction of the shore line during the early Belly River deposition 

 was approximately northeasterly, but the beds deposited during that 

 period are a part of the marine series consisting of about 500 feet of 

 shales beneath the Turtle Mountain coal bearing series. This marine 

 series also probably represents the deposits of the upper Pierre of 

 Alberta, which in southern Alberta includes also the period during 

 which the Edmonton formation was being deposited. The Sand beds 

 of Boissevain while probably marine may be in part of continental 

 origin. 



The stresses which produced the present flexures in the beds 

 resulted in a great rise in the western part of the Canadian shield as 

 well as the great elevation in the Cordilleras and as the elevation in 

 the west fluctuated greatly during the Montana period, it would be 

 but natural to suppose that the reflex would appear later in the centre 

 of the continent, and that the Cretaceous sea would, during its retreat, 

 be narrowed by it. It is suggested that its last appearance was a mere 

 inlet reaching Dakota near Bismarck after its retreat south, past that 

 point, owing to a flexing of the crust, which later became filled from 

 the surrounding area, and levelled over, but was the forerunner of the 

 greater flexure which, at present, is a very large synclinal basin. 



