586 TIMOTHY WILLIAM STANTON 
original suggestion as to its age. The stratigraphy and pale- 
ontology of the Shasta beds have been described or discussed 
by Gabb, Becker, White, Diller, Turner, Fairbanks, and Stanton. 
Soon after the definition of the Shasta, Richardson? described 
strata in the Queen Charlotte Islands that were recognized by 
Billings from the invertebrate fossils as in part the equivalent of 
the Shasta, and on the evidence of a few plants were assigned 
to either the Jurassic or the Lower Cretaceous by Dawson. The 
fauna of these beds and of their equivalents on the mainland of 
British Columbia has since been described by Whiteaves, who 
regards them as not later than the Gault. 
A few years later a series of fresh-water coal-bearing beds, 
the Kootanie formation, in the Rocky Mountain region of south- 
ern Canada, was recognized and defined by Dr. Geo. M. Daw- 
son. The accompanying flora was studied by Sir William Daw- 
son, who determined its age to be Lower Cretaceous and pub- 
lished the first account? of the formation in connection with the 
description of the flora. In 1887, the coal-bearing rocks of 
Great Falls, Mont., were referred to the Kootanie by Professor 
J. S. Newberry,3 who later discussed the flora more fully and 
pointed out its close relationship with the flora of the Potomac. 
The possible occurrence of beds of the same age in the Black 
Hills, South Dakota, has been shown by Professor L. F. Ward* 
on the evidence of cycads and a few other plants of Lower 
Cretaceous aspect in beds that have formerly been referred to 
the Dakota. 
Before this time and soon after the Potomac formation 
became known, Smith and Johnson’ had described the Tusca- 
loosa formation in Alabama. It is now correlated with the 
upper portion of the Potomac or the Raritan beds. 
™Geol. Surv. of Canada, Rept. of Progress for 1872-3, pp. 32-65. 
2Science, Vol. V, 1885, p. 31; Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada, Vol. III, 1885, sec. 4, 
pp. 1-22; idem, Vol. X, 1892, sec. 4, pp. 79-93. 
3School of Mines Quarterly, Vol. VIII, 1887, pp. 327-330; Am. Jour. Sci., 3d 
ser., Vol. XLI, 1891, pp. 191-201. 
4Jour. GEOL., Vol. II, 1894, pp. 250-266. 
5 Bull. U. S. Geol. Surv., No. 43, 1887, p. 95. 
