[BERRY-JOHNSTON] PLEISTOCENE INTERGLACIAL DEPOSITS 135 



sands and gravels which extend down to sea-level. The sands are 

 mostly unoxidized and contain in places pebbles up to 3 or 4 inches 

 in diameter. They are probably glacial outwash deposits. 



The plant-bearing beds are clearly alluvial plain deposits and 

 because of their isolated occurrence, on a point projecting into the 

 strait of Georgia, must have been formerly more extensive than at 

 present. They show that during the time of their formation, the 

 position of sea-level relatively to the land in this area, was about the 

 same as at present, or was lower. The plant remains are of special 

 interest because the beds in which they occur are in place, and the 

 plants must have lived nearly in the locality in which their remains 

 are now found. 



Although the plant-bearing beds are not seen to be directly 

 underlain by glacial till^ — -and, therefore, their interglacial age is not 

 definitely proved— they are overlain by thick deposits of boulder 

 clay and glacial outwash, and are believed to be Pleistocene, inter- 

 glacial beds for the following reasons. Two boulder clays separated 

 by stratified sands, gravels, and clays are shown in sections exposed 

 along Burrard inlet near Burrard Lumber Company's mills, in the 

 cut bank of the Fraser southwest of New Westminster, in the sea- 

 cliffs near Whiterock, and at other places in the general region. In 

 most of these sections, the stratified sands and gravels are apparently 

 glacial outwash, and the stratified clays are mostly laminated clays 

 probably formed in fairly deep water, and are unfossiliferous. The 

 upper part of the clays, however, is in places weathered, for example 

 at Whiterock, and masses of it are included in the upper till. The 

 contact of the till with the stratified deposits is markedly irregular, 

 indicating that the upper till rests on a weathered and eroded surface 

 of the stratified deposits. The plant-bearing beds may represent 

 land deposits formed during this period of erosion. The beds are 

 unconsolidated, and are nearly horizontal, whereas the known Tertiary 

 beds in the region are at least partly consolidated, and are tilted. It 

 is known from borings that the Pleistocene and Recent deposits in the 

 delta of the Fraser extend in places to depths of over 1,000 feet below 

 sea-level, and that, therefore, the land probably stood considerably 

 higher above sea-level in pre glacial time than at present. The 

 material composing the silty beds resembles glacial silt except that 

 it is deeply weathered and leached, and the beds are underlain by 

 sands and gravels which are similar to the known glacial outwash 

 deposits of the region. There is a transition upwards from the un- 

 fossiliferous outwash sands at the base to the fossiliferous beds, and 

 also from the fossiliferous beds to the overlying glacial deposits, 



