GEOLOGICAL INTEREST NEAR MEDICINE HAT. 161 



The specimens, some of which are on the table for your examina- 

 tion, would seem to indicate that these deposits among the " wea- 

 ■^hered " hills of this locality are of absording interest to a student of 

 Science. The district is extensive and days could be spent in 

 examining it. Further south beautiful ammonites are readily found, 

 while in the Cypress Hills deposits of a most interesting character 

 occur. 



Regarding the geological horizon of the deposits in Irvine Ravine, 

 the subject has received considerable attention by some members of 

 the Geological Survey, who place them in the Cretaceous of which 

 the Belly River series and Pierre Shales are represented in the 

 escarpment near Irvine Station, the Pierre Shales being uppermost 

 and represented by clay banks of a more or less dark color, below 

 follows the Belly River series composed of sandy clays and layers of 

 ironstone nodules among them. The beds are readily acted upon by 

 the weather producing the striking appearance already referred to. 

 Seams of cOal appear in these deposits at some places ; that mined at 

 Medicine Hat being at the base of the upper division of this series 

 of deposits, while the seam at Irvine Ravine lies at the base of the 

 Pierre Shales. Irvine Ravine thus becomes of more interest than 

 Medicine Hat, the former affording an excellent section in which the 

 Pierre Shales and Belly River series are well illustrated, the latter 

 being largely made up of the Belly River deposits ; both groups belong 

 to the Cretaceous system in the geological system. 



Having thus directed your attention to these attractive geological 

 hunting grounds in the vicinity of Medicine Hat, I shall close this 

 paper with the following diagram which will enable the reader to 

 compai"e the Cretaceous deposits of the North-west with those of 

 the same system in some parts of the United States and England. 



