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PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Apr. 10, 



from the damming back of the water by the Blue Hills of the Souri, 

 which are composed of hard Cretaceous shales, and through which the 

 river of that name escapes to join the Assineboine by a narrow and 

 profound chasm which it has gradually cut through the horizontal 

 strata. The place where the sand-hills and the bed of lignite-pebbles 

 is found has been the north shore of the lake, which must have been 

 of very considerable extent. 



The great valley of the South Saskatchewan where it is hemmed 

 in closely by the Grand Coteau at its elbow opens out above that 

 point, and at the junction of Eed Deer River and Bow River in 

 longitude 109° 30' W., latitude 51° N., the hills retire many miles 

 from the river, which, however, always preserves its immediate 

 banks of from 200 to 250 feet in height. The prairies are there 

 again covered with a waste of blown sand, which may perhaps have 

 had a similar origin from Tertiary or Upper Cretaceous beds, which 

 have been subjected to local denudation. The same iron-shot bands 

 containing the shells of land Molluscs and Bison bones were there 

 observed, but without any traces of the rolled fragments of lignite. 



East from the elbow of the South Saskatchewan there is also a 

 tract of sand-hills with quite the same feature ; but there I observed 

 masses of sandstone in situ, resembling the lowest beds at La Roche 

 Percee. On the opposite site of the Qu'appelle Valley, within a few 

 miles from where I turned, tbe same sandstone occurs, and there Mr. 

 Hind found the characteristic fossils of the Upper Cretaceous group 

 (Rep. Assineboine and Sask. Exp.). 



On the North Saskatchewan, forty miles above the elbow and 

 a little way above the Eagle Hills, on the left bank of the river, there 

 are cliffs of a veiy incoherent sandstone, rising 40 to 60 feet above 

 the water's edge, and worn into caves, which often communicate with 

 the plain above. At the time I observed the sandstone, I took it 

 for a local variety in the drift. If, on the other hand, it belongs to 

 the Tertiary or the Upper Cretaceous group, it proves them to have 

 a very singular distribution, conforming in a great measure to the 

 present river-valleys ; as on the opposite side of the river, at a little 

 distance back, the Middle Cretaceous group rises to the height of 

 several hundred feet. 



Eight miles below the elbow of the same river, near Birch Gulley, 

 the banks rise abruptly on either side to the height of 210 feet, when 

 the level plain is reached at the point where the great erratic masses of 

 limestone rest on its surface. At the base of the bank from this 

 point, all the way down to Carlton, a distance of forty miles, springs 

 of water escape highly charged with iron and lime, which deposit a 

 light-yellow ochre. At the above locality the springs were seen to 

 issue from beds of sandstone and conglomerate, with travertine con- 

 taining dicotyledonous leaves. 



The section is as follows : — 



a. Banks of valley composed of Drift. 



Coarse ferruginous sand very moist, with beds of blue- and buff- 

 coloured clay, the whole having rounded boulders irregu- 

 larly dispersed. 



