422 G. F. MoncMon— Tertiary Plants, British Columbia. 



thin, irregular beds of lignite, of which last-named material a typical 

 analysis by me gave — fixed carbon, 36-10 ; volatile combustible matter, 

 41-25 ; ash, 15 40 ; and hygroscopic water, 7-25 per cent. These 

 lignite beds usually are only about an inch in thickness, but some- 

 times they run into pockets a foot or more in depth. There has been 

 a considerable amount of money spent in putting down boreholes in 

 this district in search of workable coal-seams, but, so far, without 

 success ; and the opinion of the writer is that no workable coal beds 

 exist there, unless they occur in the Cretaceous beds, which are the 

 coal-bearing deposits of Western North America, and probably 

 underlie these strata. Early in 1894 I found the bed from which my 

 earlier specimens were obtained. The lower part of this contains 

 aquatic plants; above these are palm-leaves; and, again, above these 

 salix, populus, and juglans (willows, poplars, and hickory). In the 

 highest part of the deposit are palms and a few other leaves. The 

 whole bed varies from four to eighteen inches in depth, and is under- 

 lain by a few inches of black shales, which contain many leaves that 

 are for the most part very difficult to distinguish. This shale thins 

 out in a few yards, and it would seem that the fossil bed runs out at 

 the same point where the shale vanishes. I think that probably 

 there existed, at the time when these fossils were deposited, a cove 

 at this point, where the water was slack. The second bed which I 

 worked in produces fewer fossils, but the veining is much more 

 distinct. This deposit was only found in May, 1895. "Where it was 

 first opened the total thickness did not exceed one inch, which con- 

 tained leaves of angiosperms, underlain by about one inch yielding 

 fern-leaves. Underneath it was a bed of black shale two inches 

 thick. Where it is now worked the upper part is at least six inches 

 thick. It is curious to note in this deposit how at one end the 

 hickory prevails ; in the middle, poplars and willows ; and at the 

 other end, poplars alone : which would seem to point to the fact that 

 these leaves were not carried any distance, but lie where they fell 

 from trees overhanging the bank. 



I might preface the description of my fossils with some remarks 

 as to the supposed age of these rocks. To the southward is a region 

 covered with strata which are of the same age, and are now generally 

 supposed to be Eocene, and compared to the Upper Laramie. The 

 Laramie formation is to be adjudged as belonging to the Eocene, if its 

 age be determined by the fossil leaves which it contains. It is identi- 

 fied, however, by its saurian remains, and also by the occurrence of 

 some mollusks with the Cretaceous. It passes down into the Creta- 

 ceous without any stratigraphical break, while the overlying Tertiary 

 are, as a rule, unconformable to it. Heer classed it as Miocene, 

 Lesquereux partly as Eocene and partly as Miocene, while Clarence 

 King referred part of it to the Cretaceous. It has recently been 

 found to underlie Miocene beds, which would seem to stamp the 

 upper part as Eocene. 



Some of the species found point to a considerably warmer climate 

 than that which now prevails at Burrard Inlet, which resembles the 

 south of England, although others are very similar to plants which 

 grow there at the present time. 





