322 Tertiary. 



Bate. These are mostly white, but some are gray, brown, pink, and 

 red, the latter often passing into banded compact sandstone. There 

 are also pebbles of dark, fine-grained diorite, light-colored limestone, 

 and some of dark fine-grained mica schist, and of white translucent 

 quartz, the last mentioned being often rough surfaced. Mr. George 

 M. Dawson thinks this quartzite drift has come eastward from the foot- 

 hills of the Rocky Mountains, where in the neighborhood of the- line 

 (latitude 49°) he found unfossiliferous rocks in situ, some of which 

 resemble certain varieties of these quartzite pebbles, but Rev. Pere 

 Petitot collected white saccharine quartzite from the McKenzie river 

 exactly like that of the white pebbles of the third steppe. 



While the composition of the bowlder clay of the first and second 

 prairie steppes, and also, to some extent, that of the third steppe, as 

 well as the course of the strife on the hard rocks on the east side of 

 the prairies, would indicate that the drift had been mainly from the 

 northeastward, the above evidence shows that a large proportion of 

 the transported material on the highest levels has come from the north, 

 or west. A part of what is now found in some localities may have 

 been moved first in one direction and afterward in another, whilst the 

 bulk of the older drift, including, perhaps, even that on the third 

 steppe, has probably come from points between north and east. The 

 quartzite pebbles of the third steppe are all thoroughly water-worn, 

 and appear to be most abundant on and near the surface. The upper 

 200 feet, or thereabouts, of the south bank of the South Saskatche- 

 wan, at the Red Ochre Hills, consists of cla3"ey drift, in which bowl- 

 ders of Laurentian gneiss occur, while the surfaces of these hills are 

 strewn with smooth quartzite gravel and cobblestones. At the dis- 

 tance of 150 miles to the southeastwaixl, between the Dirt Hills and 

 the Wood}^ Mountain, the proportion of quartzite gravel on the third 

 steppe has diminished considerabl}^ and Laurentian bowlders have be- 

 come very numerous on the surface. 



Between Fort Garry and Fort EUice, Huronian bowlders and pebbles 

 are scarce, the}^ are, however, abundant in the drift in the banks of 

 the Assineboine for some miles above and below the junction of the 

 Shell river, and in the banks of the Calling river in the neighborhood 

 of the Fishing Lakes. They are noticeable on the surface all the way 

 from these lakes to the Touchwood Hills. Surface bowlders are ex- 

 tremely abundant on the southern and western sides of the gravelly 

 and sandy tract southwest of Fort EUice, about the head waters of the 

 Calling river, and in many places on the high ground of the third 



