4^ Thr \\'cst American Scientist. 



and Fiica be lowered .sonie -15 or 20 degrees, tlien the sun of 

 summer would be unable to melt the ice and snow accumulated 

 in winter. The consequence would be that in a few centuries 

 X'ancouver Island would become a vast field of ice. Fortunately 

 this probability is far remote. 



There was also a time when the island had a warmer climate, 

 perhaps 15 degrees more than the present average of Georgia 

 Strait. The climate, although warmer, was also more moist 

 than it is now. and the rainfalls were very heavy. In such a 

 climate the coal deposits were formed. It could not have been 

 warmer or colder. It warmer, then the vegetable matter would 

 have decayed and become soil before it had time to become 

 lignite ; if colder, then the island could not have j^roduced rich 

 enough vegetation. 



The coal deposits of V'ancouver Island belong not to the Car- 

 boniferous but to the Cretaceous period. The Cretaceous rocks 

 rest upon the beds of older formation, and consist ot sandstones, 

 conglomerates and shales and contain many fossil plants and 

 marine shells. Among the plants we find usually angiosperm- 

 ous and gymnospermous genera, and among the fossils the most 

 characteristic are specimens of Ancella Piochii. These shells 

 are often washed out from the rocks and carried down by the 

 waves even so far as the vicinity of Victoria. One magnificent 

 specimen of Ancella was found by the writer on the beach of 

 Ross Bay, and must have been carriisd down by the waves from 

 the vicinity of Satellite Channel, or from some other part where 

 there are Cretaceous rocks. 



The range of mountains which traverse Vancou\er Island from 

 north to south shows also a curious formation. It consists 

 chiefly of crystalline schists, here varying in texture, there in. 

 color, in part Carboniferous sometimes interbedded with slate 

 rocks of more recent volcanic origin, and often subjected to 

 metamorphism. The argillites and limestones of these rocks 

 contain in numerous localities Triassic fossils. The beds under- 

 lying the Cretaceous rocks are also in great part altered — vol- 

 canic materials interbedded with argillites and limestones. This 

 entire mass ot rocks is known under the term of the Vancoiivtr 

 Series, the name originally applied by Dr. Selwyn and adopted 

 by Dr. Dawson. 



The city of Victoria rests upon a series of rocks difierent Irom 

 any other on the island, and chieriy built of telspathic and di- 

 oritic masses, here and there becoming gneisses and mica-schists 

 and in places interbedded with limestone. The neighbors of Vic-~ 

 toria, the inhabitants of Sooke, have built their houses also on- 

 beds which do not occur anywhere else on the island. These, 

 beds arc Tertiary and consist of sandstones, conglomerates and 

 shales, sometimes carbonaceous. Many of the readers who have 

 been to Port Townsend undoubtedly remember the high bluffs on. 

 the coast of Washington. These bluffs belong to the same for- 

 mation as the beds of Sooke and in fact tlie Tertiary rocks sur- 



