THE EOCENE OF NORTH AMERICA 459 



On the evidence furnished by fossil plants Sir William Daw- 

 son correlates the Puget formation with the Fort Union forma- 

 tion as will be seen from the following quotation : J 



In summing up the results of this study of fossil plants from the Tertiary of 

 southern British Columbia, it appears from a comparison with the flora of the 

 Upper Cretaceous Nanaimo series, that the Burrard's Inlet species are distinct 

 and of more modern aspect. On the other hand they are also distinct from 

 those of the older Oligocene or older Miocene deposits of the Similkameen 

 district and other parts of the interior of British Columbia. Between these 

 they occupy an intermediate position; in this respect corresponding with the 

 Laramie of the interior plains east of the Rocky Mountains. They also 

 resemble this formation in the general facies of the flora, which is not dis- 

 similar from that of the Upper Laramie or Fort Union group. We may thus 

 refer the plants [from Burrard's Inlet] now in question to the Paleocene or 

 Eocene ; and regard them as corresponding with those of the Atanekerdluk 

 beds in Greenland, the lignitic series of the McKenzie River, and the beds 

 [Kenai ?] holding similar plants in Alaska. Thus the opinion expressed in 

 1890, from the very small collection then available was substantially correct; 

 and I find that the late Dr. Newberry had arrived at a similar conclusion from 

 the study of the plants of the Puget group in Washington territory. This 

 flora thus serves to fill up one of the gaps in our western series of fossil 

 plants, namely, that between the Cretaceous and the Lower Miocene. How 

 completely it may fill this gap we do not know at present 



THE ARAGO FORMATION 



The typical outcrop of this formation is at Cape Arago, 

 Oregon. The beds are chiefly sandstones and shales, and dip 

 toward the northeast at an angle of about 30°. Their thickness 

 is 3000 feet. They contain characteristic Eocene fossils. 2 

 Diller 3 divides the Arago formation at Coos Bay into the 

 Pulaski formation and the Coaledo formation. The Pulaski is 

 the lower. "The Coaledo formation is characterized not only 

 by the presence of coal, but also by the relatively large propor- 

 tion of beds containing brackish-water fossils. In the other 

 portion [Pulaski] of the Arago formation of the Coos Bay 



x Sir William Dawson : Proc. Roy. Soc. Can., n. s., Vol. I, pp. 150, 151, 1895. 

 2 Dall : Eighteenth Ann. U. S. Geol. Surv., 1895-6, Part II, p. 343. 

 3 Nineteenth Ann. Rep. U. S. Geol. Survey, 1897-8, Part III, p. 320. 



