Reviews—Geological Survey of Canada. 371 
series.” Its thickness on Little Red Deer River was ascertained to 
be at least 5700 feet, “the bottom of the formation not being seen, 
and a considerable thickness having been probably removed from 
the top by denudation. The whole series was proved by its fossil 
fauna to be of freshwater origin, shells of the genera Unio, Spherium. 
Limnea, Physa, Goniobasis, etc., attesting this fact. Fossil plants of 
the genera Sequoia, Taxodium, Platanus, Quercus, Populus, Salix, 
Viburnum, ete., were also collected. 
It will be observed in the table of strata above, that the Edmonton 
and the Paskapoo series are given as subdivisions of the Laramie, 
the former representing the Lower Laramie of the Canadian Geolo- 
gical surveyors, and the latter the Upper. The physical conditions 
under which these two series were deposited are thus described :— 
In the Edmonton series, which succeeds the marine beds of the 
Upper Cretaceous, Mr. Tyrrell finds abundant evidence of the 
brackish-water origin of this series, in the presence of beds of coal, 
fragments of land plants, and brackish water molluscs, besides 
numerous bones of Dinosaurs, ‘“‘ which have evidently been entombed 
in the beds over which they waded, or in the marsh on or along the 
edge of which they used to feed, or hunt their prey.” He concludes, 
therefore, that this series ‘‘ was laid down in shallow brackish water 
in an almost land-locked bay, or in a great salt marsh near the 
mouth of a large river... .” 
“At the close of the Edmonton period, the pressure which had 
caused the uprising of the present plains-area from the bottom of 
the Pierre sea, and which towards the west had raised the land com- 
pletely above the surface of the water, was relieved by the uplifting 
of the Rocky Mountains along a line near the western edge of this 
great area, and the “plains” sank again beneath the surface of the 
sea, now cut off entirely from the main ocean, and converted into a 
great inland lake, and a thickness of several thousand feet of sand- 
stones and sandy shales was laid down on the gradually sinking 
floor; these sandstones and shales being the Paskapoo series of this 
report. ae 
No Dinosaurian remains were discovered in these beds, but a 
number of land plants, land and fresh-water molluscs, with 
occasional beds of coal occur in them. 
The Laramie beds suffered a considerable amount of denudation 
at the close of their deposition, during a period of elevation which 
took place before the Miocene beds began to be laid down. 
From all these facts Mr. Tyrrell deems himself justified in con- 
cluding that the Cretaceous Epoch terminated with the deposition of 
the uppermost beds of the Edmonton series; and that the Tertiary 
Epoch began with the commencement of the Paskapoo period, which 
he regards as “the representative of the Hocene of Europe,” an 
opinion held also by Dr. Newberry.} 
Concerning the exact age of the Laramie little can be affirmed 
with certainty. We have seen what Mr. Tyrrell’s views are upon 
the subject; it may be profitable now to consider those of some 
1 Trans, New York Academy, Feb. 1886, 
