Stevenson.] '±00 [June IB, 



Organic remains, bofh animal and vegetable, occur abundantly 

 throughout Division 3. No. 1 is lighter colored and more arenaceous 

 than 3. Near its base thin layers of argillaceous dolomite occur, and 

 near the top a fossiliferous layer was found. 



No doubt those readers to whom these facts are new will feel aston- 

 ished to learn that any person has ever disputed the Cretaceous age of 

 these coals. The whole trouble has arisen from the finding of some 

 vegetable fragments which have been so far affected by prolonged mace- 

 ration as to be readily identifiable with almost anything. The interpre- 

 ters of these impressions are not entirely agreed among themselves, 



Mr. Lesquereux* has examined a large collection of plants from Nanaim o 

 and the adjacent portion of Washington Territory. Out of the specimens 

 he made a number of new species, while he recognized a number identical 

 with species previously described in Europe. So closely allied to the flora 

 of the European Miocene are these that Mr. Lesquereux refers both Na- 

 naimo and Bellingham to the Miocene. Somewhat laterf he published a 

 letter from Prof. Heer fortifying his position by showing the identity of 

 several of his species with those known in Europe. Bot h of these palaeo- 

 botanists agreed in referring Vancouver to the Miocene. The editor of the 

 American Journal of Science felt it necessary to append to this letter an 

 apology for Prof. Heer, in which he stated that the Professor had not had 

 access to the paper by Meek and Hayden on the Vancouver fossils. 



The collections made at Nanaimo, Bellingham Bay, and other localities 

 in the vicinity, by Mr. Geo. Gribbs, were submitted to Dr. Newberry,:): who 

 regarded the Bellingham Bay deposit as most probably Miocene. He had 

 in fact thus announced it in 1856. Some moUuscan remains obtained with 

 the leaves, induced Dr. Newberry to regard the Nanaimo coals as Creta- 

 ceous. It is evident from his language that nothing in the plants would lead 

 one to suppose that they belong to a Cretaceous horizon, but, on the con- 

 trary, that enough was shown by them to cast doubt upon any such con- 

 clusion, were satisfactory evidence lacking. His words are as follows : 



"The evidence now before us— if the specimens in the collection were 

 obtained in the circumstances reported — shows conclusively that all the 

 plant-bearing strata about Nanaimo are of Cretaceous age ; indeed, so far 

 as at present known to us, all the fossils collected at Vancouver's Island 

 are of that formation." 



The vegetable remains obtained at Nanaimo, in 1871, by Messrs. 

 Selwyn and Richardson were submitted to Dr. Dawson. Among these 

 were Taxodium cuneatum, Newb., Sequoia Langsdorfii, Heer, Sabal, Pal- 

 macites, Populus, Quercus, Platanus, Cinnamomum Heeri, Lesqx., Taxi- 

 teg, Cupressinoxylon. 



"Dr. Dawson states that the plants led Lesquereux and Heer to 

 refer the beds to the Miocene, but that Newberry has shown that the 



* American Journal of Science, 2d series, Vol. 27. 



tibid., Vol. 23. 



t Boston .Journal of Natural History, Vol. 7. 



