Mesozolc and Camozoic Geology and Paloiontology. i:59 



Lake, and thence to the Finla}^ Rapids, on Peace river, the country-, 

 with some exceptions, is more or less overspread with drift material ; 

 much of this has been derived from the abrasion of the Tertiary for- 

 mations, through which many of the principal valleys of the country 

 have been cut, exposing alternating beds of clay, lignite, sand and 

 rounded gravel, capped b}' vast sheets of volcanic products, chie% 

 porous and compact lavas — columnar and concretionar}'— and dense 

 dolerite, forming high hills or undulating stony table-lands, such as 

 that which is crossed bj' the wagon road between Clinton and Bridge 

 creek, at an elevation of 4,000 or 5,000 feet. From Mr. Horetzky's 

 description of the abrupt character of the country on the Susqua 

 river, and in the vicinity of Fort Stager on the Skeena, these Tertiary 

 volcanic" products are supposed to be extensivelj" developed in that 

 region. The lignite Tertiary strata which are assumed to have pre- 

 ceded the latest of these volcanic outbursts, occupy undefined, but ex- 

 tensive areas between Fort George and McLeod's lake ; and probably 

 continue thence to the vallej' of Nation river, with only such interrup- 

 tions as are the result, partly, of the original unevenness of the sur- 

 face upon which they were laid down, and partly of the subsequent de- 

 nuding agencies to which they have been subjected, giving rise to out- 

 croppiugs of the older rocks, either as hills or ridges rising above the 

 general level of the country, or appealing as rocky bars or canons in 

 the deep-cut channels of the rivers. The general similarity of some of 

 the sands and gravels of the drift period to those of Tertiary age, 

 makes it difficult, without close and critical examination of each ex- 

 posure, to determine to which period they should be referred, and the 

 distribution of the drift upon the Tertiary deposits is so irregular afe to 

 make it quite impracticable to define their respective limits. 



At about three miles below Nation river, a steep cliff" rises on the 

 right bank of Parsnip river, from the water's edge to 70 or 80 feet. 

 At the base, stiff blue clays are seen, and these are overlaid by layers 

 of sand and fine gravel, passing at the top into coarse rounded gravel. 

 This is, probabl}-, near the northern limit of the Parsnip river lignite- 

 Tertiar}' basin, as a short distance further a rocky ridge crosses the 

 river and crops out in both banks, the country then rising i-apidly, on 

 one side to the Rocky mountains, and on the other to the watershed 

 between the Omineca and the Parsnip rivers. On the eastern side of 

 the mountains there do not appear to be any deposits which can be re- 

 ferred with certainity to the lignite-Tertiary series. At intervals along 

 the river, on both sides, deposits of stratified sand and gravel, cut into 



