Section IV, 1922 [133] Trans. R.S.C. 



Pleistocene Interglacial Deposits 

 in the Vancouver Region, British Columbia} 



By Edward W. Berry^ and W. A. Johnston, M.A., B.Sc, F.R.S.C. 



(Read May Meeting, 1922) 



Introduction 



Two Pleistocene till sheets or boulder clays separated by stratified 

 sands and gravels have long been known to occur in the Vancouver 

 region, British Columbia/^ These stratified sands and gravels and 

 similar deposits in the state of Washington have been generally re- 

 garded as glacial outwash deposits, formed during a period of recession 

 of the ice. Some geologists'* have held that the stratified deposits 

 indicate merely a temporary recession of the ice, but others^ have 

 pointed out that the evidence of weathering and erosion of the strati- 

 fied deposits and lower till, previously to the deposition of the upper 

 till, indicates an interglacial period of long duration. There has been 

 published up to the present, however, practically no evidence regarding 

 climatic conditions during the supposed interglacial period which 

 would indicate whether the recession of the ice-sheet in this general 

 region was extensive, or was merely temporary. 



A small collection of fossil plants was made by the junior author 

 in September, 1921, from unconsolidated sandy and silty beds exposed 

 in the sea-cliff at Point Grey, near Vancouver, British Columbia. 

 The beds are apparently interglacial in age, and the plant remains 

 furnish some definite evidence regarding climatic conditions during 

 the time of deposition of the beds. In the present paper the mode of 

 occurrence and character of the beds are described by the junior 

 author and the character and significance of the fossil plants by the 

 senior author. 



The Pleistocene Deposits 

 Good sections of the Pleistocene deposits in the Vancouver 

 region are exposed in sea-cliffs of Point Grey peninsula. The peninsula 



^Published by permission of the Director, Geological Survey, Ottawa. 



^Professor of Palaeontology, The Johns Hopkins University. 



«G. M. Dawson, Geol. Surv. Canada, Ann. Rep., Vol. VII, 1894, p. 253B. 



«0. E. LeRoy, Geol. Surv. Canada, Publication 996, 1908, p. 27. 



^E. M. J. Burwash, The Geology of Vancouver and Vicinity, The Univ. of 

 Chicago Press, 1918. 



J. H. Bretz, Glaciation of the Puget Sound Region; Washington Geological 

 Survey, Bulletin No. 8, 1913. 



