[parks] presidential ADDRESS 9 



nized as Cretaceous. In 1832 the Prince of Nieuwied discovered the 

 first Cretaceous reptiUan rtmains at Great Bend below Fort Pierre. 

 In 1839 the geographer Nicollet ascended the Missouri to Fort Pierre, 

 collected fossils, and subdivided the strata. In 1849 Dr. John Evans 

 made a trip into the bad lands on the White river of Nebraska and 

 collected many fossils which were described and figured by Owen in 

 his report of 1852. 



Meek and Hayden were in the bad lands in 1853: they divided 

 the strata into five formations ascribed without names to the Cre- . 

 taceous and Tertiary. The fossils collected were described in a 

 Memoir of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Boston, 1856. 

 This classification was extended and published, with names, by the 

 same authors in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Science 

 of Philadelphia in 1861. The Cretaceous was divided into Dakota, 

 Fort Benton, Niobrara, Fort Pierre, and Fox Hill. 



Turning now to Western Canada we find that a great amount 

 of geographical exploration preceded definite work in stratigraphy; 

 nevertheless many of the records of these early explorations contain 

 references of geological significance. The following brief notes indi- 

 cate the general trend of investigation : 1739- — -Verendrye discovered 

 Lake Manitoba. 1750- — M. Legardeur de Saint Pierre ascended the 

 Saskatchewan. 1792' — Fiddler went through to the mountains and 

 reported coal at the junction of Rosebud creek with the Red Deer 

 river. 1797^ — David Thompson crossed to the Pacific. 1799-1804' — 

 Alexander Henry was in the eastern prairie region. 1814 — Franchère 

 passed through the Yellowhead pass. 1825- — Thomas Drummond 

 of the Second Franklin Expedition led a party to Edmonton. 1841- — 

 Sir George Simpson sent coal from Edmonton to Sir Wm. Logan. 

 1845-58 — The first definite geology was worked out by Dr. Hector 

 of Palliser's expedition. He recognized Cretaceous and Tertiary 

 rocks, also the occurrence of coal. Hector's report appeared in 1861 

 in the Journal of the Geological Society, Vol. 17. 1858 — S. S. Daw- 

 son collected fossils which were sent to Billings. His report contains 

 a letter from Billings together with others from Meek, Hayden, Sir 

 Wm. Dawson, and Jones, confirming the occurrence of Cretaceous 

 rocks in the Canadian North-West. 1858 — H. Y. Hind recorded the 

 occurrence of Devonian rocks on Lake Manitoba. 



Nothing further seems to have been done in this region until the 

 close of the period we are considering in 1870. 



Period 1870-1900 



It is somewhat difficult to subdivide the time from 1870 to the 

 present into periods separated by events of outstanding import- 



