GEOLOGICAL AREAS OP CANADA. 21 



of perpendicular rock, strike far inland from the sea. Yery little is 

 known respecting the geology of the district ; but the mountain 

 ranges appear to consist largely of granitic or crystalline formations? 

 broken through by volcanic rocks of comparatively recent origin. 

 Outlying patches of intervening Palaeozoic strata, and more recent 

 coal-bearing beds, probably occur amongst these, with overlying 

 terraced deposits of sand and gravel, as seen in the Table-Land 

 District on the west. 



(4.) The Island District. — This subdivision comprises- Vancouver 

 Island, Queen Charlotte Islands, and the numerous smaller groups 

 lying between these and along the coast generally. All are essen- 

 tially of a mountainous character; and the larger islands contain 

 isolated peaks, or are traversed by broken ranges — northern outliers 

 of the " Sea Alps" of California, and thus, undoubtedly, composed in 

 part of volcanic rocks — of comparatively high elevation. In Van- 

 couver Island, amongst other elevated points, the Beavifort Range 

 exceeds 5,000 feet in altitude; and Mt. Arrowsmith is 5,970 feet, 

 Victoria Peak 7,484 feet, Mfc. Albert Edward 6,963 feet, and Mt. 

 Alexandra 6,395 feet above the sea. In the Charlotte Islands, the 

 ranges are apparently of neai-ly equal height. In both of these 

 island groups, however, comparatively level tracks, well adapted for 

 agricultural settlement, occupy extensive areas. The geology of the 

 district, so far as at present known from the Eeports of Mr. 

 Richardson of the Canadian Survey, Mr. Bauerman, Dr. Brown, 

 and others, may be briefly summarized as follows : The smaller 

 • islands lying more immediately along the coast consist principally of 

 crystalline hornblendic strata, associated with beds of semi-crystalline 

 limestone, and holding in some localities — as on Texada Island, more 

 especially — valuable beds of magnetic U'on ore. Rocks of a similar 

 kind occur upon the flanks of the mountain ranges in Vancouver 

 and other islands to the east — these westerly and easterly exposures 

 seeming to form the edges of a long trough, or series of troughs, filled 

 with coal-bearing Cretaceous strata. The semi-crystalline limestones 

 contain in places many imperfectly |)reserved fossils of Carboniferous 

 or Upper Palaeozoic types. The coal-bearing strata consist mostly 

 of alternations of sandstones, conglomerates, and shales (the first 

 greatly predominating), with layers of iron-stone nodules and seams 

 of coal, the latter varying from a few inches to about five or six feet 

 in thickness. These coal strata are characterized by the presence of 

 many well-known Mesozoic types — Ammonites, Belemnites, &c- 



