373 



In tlie second gfronp, as remarked by the author of the report, p. 93, 

 the beds exposed to view are at an elevation of about seven hundred feet 

 greater than those of the Souris Eiver; their exact relation, however, 

 being statigraphically undeterminable. A section in the Great Yalley 

 (completed p. 94) mostly represents clay beds and thin lignite beds with 

 remains of plants. In one hundred and forty-four feet of measures, there 

 is only one bed of lignite one foot thick ; while at Porcupine Creek, or 

 in a valley joining it, a section of forty feet (represented in PI. V, fig. 1) 

 shows a fine display of lignite beds, as follows : 



Ft. In. 



1. Surface soil , 1 



2. Quartzite drift 1 6 



3. Yellowish and gray sandy clays 9 



4. Lignite 9 



5. Banded clays, yellowish-gray, &c., with plants 5 



6. Lignite, weathering, soft 10 



7. Lignite, hard, compact, laminated 8 



8 . Soft gray sandstone 5 



More details in regard to these sections of the Lignitic are unnecessary 

 to prove the relation of these Canadian Lignitic measures with those of 

 the North. The succession of the strata is variable, and may differ at 

 each locality ; they however represent the same formation as our great 

 Lignitic of the West, and the determination of their age as Tertiary is 

 forcible for the iSTorth American Lignitic as well as for that of Canada 

 in considering the whole as a unique formation. 



In the examination of the fossil plants which he had to determine, 

 Prof. J. W. Dawson first remarks: "That the plants of the first group 

 are for the most part identical with those found by American geologists 

 in the Fort Union series, and which have been determined by Professor 

 jSTewberryandMr.Lesquereux. Theyare also similar to pi ants collected by 

 Dr. Richardson in the Lignitic series of the Mackenzie Eiver, as described 

 by Heer, and represented by specimens in the collection of the geological 

 survey, etc. They also approach very closely the so-called Miocene floras 

 of Alaska and Greenland, as described by Heer 5 and, in their facies and 

 in several of their species, they coincide with the Miocene flora of 

 Europe." He then adds: "If we were to regard the affinities of the 

 plants merely, and to compare them with tbe Miocene of other coun- 

 tries, and also to consider the fact that several of the species are identi- 

 cal with those still living, and that the whole facies of the flora coin- 

 cides with that of modern temperate America, little hesitation would be 

 felt in assigning the formation in which they occur to the Miocene 

 period. On the other hand, when we consider the fact that the lower 

 beds of this formation hold the remains of reptiles of Mesozoic types ^ 

 that the beds pass downward into rocks holding Baculites and 

 Inocerami ; and that a flora essentially similar is found associated with 

 Cretaceous marine-animal remains both in Dakota* and in Vancouver's 

 Island, we should be inclined to assign them at least to the base of 

 Eocene." 



From the above we see that Professor Dawson positively acknowl- 

 edges, as the result of his study of the fossil plants of the Lignitic, the 

 Tertiary age of these formations. He briefly describes or enumerates 

 from Porcupine Creek seventeen species, all of Tertiary types, and 

 most of them described formerly by Professor Heer and Professor New- 



*This is right for the flora of Vancouver's Ishind, but ziot for that of the Dakota 

 group. The assertion, however, does not weaken the truth of the conclusion. 



