Section IV, 1S81. [ 31 ] Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada. 



III. — Note on Fossil Woods and other Plant Remains, ftom the Cretaceous and 

 Laramie Formations of the Western Territories of Canada. By Sir William 

 Dawson, F.R.S. 



(Read May 25, 1887.) 



Silicified wood and lignite, retaining structure, are known to exist at different horizons 

 in the Upper Cretaceous beds of the Northwest, in the Laramie formation, and in the 

 Lower Miocene of the Cypress Hills, and loose fragments of these woods are not infrequent 

 in the drift or on the surface. Hence the numerous specimens, collected by travellers and 

 explorers, are of little palœoutological value, except when they have been found in place, 

 and when the geological ages of the beds containing them have been ascertained. When 

 their relations in this respect are known, they are, however, of much interest, more espe- 

 cially when compared with the other plant remains found in the Cretaceous and overlying 

 beds. I have, for this reason, endeavoured to collect and study these different species of 

 wood, and now present a short account of them, as a supplement to my paper of last year 

 on the Laramie flora. 



A number of specimens of these woods, principally from the Laramie beds, were col- 

 lected by Dr. Gr. M. Dawson, when acting as Geologist to the Boundary Commission. They 

 were placed in my hands for examination, and were described and some of them figured in 

 the Report of the Survey of the 49th Parallel (1875).' They were principally coniferous, 

 and represented in all about nine species, which, following the classification proposed by 

 Kraus in Schimper's " Palseontologie," were referred to the genera Cedroxylon, Pitoxijlon, 

 Cupressoxylon and Taxoxyton. There was also ordinary exogenous wood of the type of that 

 of the poplars. 



In 1868, Cramer described in Heer's "Flora Fossilis Arctica," a number of specimens 

 of coniferous wood from Greenland, Banks Land, and Spitzbergen, which he referred to 

 Cupressoxylon and Pinites, and a species of Beiula. In 1880, Schroeter, in the same publica- 

 tion described some fossil woods from the Laramie of Mackenzie River, under the names 

 Sequoia Canadetisis, Ginkgo, sp., and Platanus aceroides. The first of these species is some- 

 what near to Sequoia sempervirem, the Californian Redwood, and may not unreasonably be 

 supposed to be the wood of Sequoia Langsdorjfii, a species found with it, and which in foliage 

 resembles the Redwood. 



I have now been enabled to secv\re slices of about sixty distinct trees, most of them in 

 situ, and from the horizons of the Belly RivBr, Fort Pierre, and Laramie groups. These 

 have been collected principally by Dr. G. M. Dawson, Mr. J. B. Tyrrell and Mr. T. C. 

 Weston, and, with the exception of a few prepared in the Peter Redpath Museum, have 

 been sliced by Mr. Weston. " 



' Appendix, p. 331. 



^ The slices prepared by Mr. Weston will be deposited in the Museum of the Geological Survey at Ottawa. 



