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published by the Geological Survey of Canada, the geology of those 

 regions, he said — 



The Canadian Pacific Eailway, which would shortly connect the 

 Atlantic Ocean on the east with the Pacific on the west, had lately 

 opened out a tract of country in the heart of the Eockies hitherto but 

 little known ; and it was his good fortune to accompany Professor 

 Selwyn, Dr. Dawson, Professor Boyd Dawkins and other geologists in 

 a geological ramble down the Kicking Horse Pass in search of some 

 fossil evidence, which would help to determine the age of the beds. 

 The Secondary and Tertiary strata, so horizontal in the Prairie country 

 to the east, became much disturbed and folded at the "foot hills" of 

 the Rockies, until on approaching the head of the Kicking Horse Pass, 

 some 5,000 feet high, the older beds — which here come in and are sup- 

 posed to be of Devonian age — became tilted up in some places quite 

 vertical, if not reversed altogether. These beds^ consisting of 

 Quartzites and calcareous rocks, were diligently searched for fossils in 

 vain ; but just after crossing the high trestle bridge over the Kicking 

 Horse Eiver, on the left of the track a micaceous slab of rock with 

 apparently an easterly dip had been exposed, and certain markings 

 thereon like worm tracks attracted his attention ; on examining these 

 he found also the trace of something evidently organic, which after 

 some time and trouble was chiselled out. The exact nature of the fossil 

 he was unaware of at the time, but a short distance further west on 

 the same side of the track he found a band of calcareous rock six 

 inches thick, crammed full of portions of trilohites. On returning home 

 he shewed them to Dr. Hicks, well versed in the Archaean rocks of 

 England, and was informed by him that the first specimen contained 

 the tail of a Paradoxides upon it, and that the calcareous fossiliferous 

 band was full of portions of the same genus, and of Conocoryphe and 

 other allied forms, thus shewing that these rocks contained a 

 Primordial fauna, and that they belonged to what Dr. Hicks calls the 

 Menevian zone, so ably worked out by himself in Wales. He further 

 stated that in his opinion these beds were not far distant from an 

 Archaean axis. This was a fortunate discovery, as it will enable future 

 explorers to take these beds as a datum line, and it is expected that Dr. 

 Dawson, who was then about to survey that portion of the track, will 

 have by this time been enabled to define the position of the other beds 

 both eastward and westward. Specimens of the fossils were exhibited. 



