﻿1861.] 



HECTOR ROCKY MOUNTAINS, ETC. 



4L7 



recognized on Bow River to the south for a considerable distance 

 above the mouth of Belly Biver, and also yet further to the south- 

 west, forming the high broken grounds over which I passed on my 

 journey from the Cypres Mountains to the Rocky Mountains in 

 August 1859. It was also met with at the elbow of Battle River, 

 and above Fort Pitt, on the North Saskatchewan, where it seems to 

 form the banks of that river for a considerable distance, but is 

 wanting above the Snake Portage, until it reappears again at the 

 Pyramids about 100 miles above Fort Edmonton. Between these 

 points it probably forms the high grounds back from the river, such 

 as the Beaver Hills, Bears' Hill, and the hills round St. Ann's to 

 the west and north of Edmonton. I offer this sketch, however, of its 

 distribution more as a surmise founded on the physical features of 

 the country, than from actual observations of its relations at these 

 various points. 



Excepting very obscurely below the Snake Portage on the North 

 Saskatchewan, I cannot say that I anywhere observed the relation 

 of this group to the Baculite-clays of the preceding division. I 

 descended that river on the ice, travelling with dogs, in March 1858, 

 and as the late season compelled me to travel a great deal in the 

 night I missed many points of interest. Its relations to the strata 

 below it were apparently shown on Red Deer River. 



At this place the group is found to form the broken country round 

 the base of the escarpment of the Hand Hills, which probably in 

 their full altitude include several of the members of the Cretaceous 

 System, and therefore merit a more minute description. 



These hills form a high mass of table-land a few miles back from 

 Red Deer River, presenting an abrupt escarpment to every quarter 

 but the east, in which direction they slope off gently with the dip of 

 the strata. 



Our encampment on June 25th, 1859, was in one of the deep 

 ravines on its western face, 375 feet above the plains below, and 100 

 feet below the level of the plateau above. 



In the upper part of the escarpment facing the S.W., grey coarse 

 sandstones were exposed, which had a considerable dip to the N.E. 

 The bedding of these was bard and distinct, and they were seen to 

 rest upon soft incoherent sandstone underlain by light sandy clays and 

 blue-clay shale (see section, fig. 5) . In the clays are enclosed angular 

 masses of black iron- shot sandstone, and also pebbles of quartz and 

 granite. No evidence of the exact position of these strata was ob- 

 tained ; but, although they were somewhat disturbed, I saw no reason 

 to doubt that they are a superior member of the Cretaceous series 

 overlying the beds next to be mentioned, which are of the group 

 C. Fig. 5 (p. 418) gives a sketch of the strata of the hills from the 

 valley of Red Deer River northwards ; and it will be seen that there 

 is an interval of several hundred feet between the sandstones and 

 clays and the banded clays of group C, the nature of Avhich was 

 not ascertained. These banded clays, which occupy a narrow tract 

 of country round the Hand Hills, give rise to large white mud- 

 swamps, which we found at the season of our visit to be nearly dry, 



