﻿428 



PKOCEEDtN T GS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



[Apr. 10, 



Relations of the Cretaceous Series on the West. — On "Weepaioos 

 Creek, a tributary to Deadman's Biver, and within fifteen miles 

 of the Old Bow Fort, thin disturbed beds are very distinctly ex- 

 posed, as in fig. 10, and must include an enormous thickness of strata. 

 Although in the absence of fossils I cannot speak positively, yet I 

 believe that these sections include Carboniferous strata, which are 

 represented by the lower grits and shales, which contain coal in thin 

 streaks with plant-impressions. Prom some of the higher beds at 

 the Bow Fort, a small Cardium was procured. Also on the North 

 Saskatchewan, over the grits and shales of probably Carboniferous 

 age, there came beds of pink quartzose grit with dark shales, on 

 which rested a great thickness of black aluminous shale containing a 

 small Ostrea in great abundance. Also on the west shore of Lac h 

 Bruler, where the Athabasca Biver leaves the mountains, the same 

 strata were observed resting high up on the flanks of a mountain of 

 Carboniferous Limestone. 



At many other points in the mountains throughout the eastern 

 ranges, patches of shales occur, highly ferruginous and along with 

 grits and heavy-bedded sandstones of various tints, and having appa- 

 rently a superior position to the rocks of Carboniferous age, of which 

 the greater mass of tbat portion of the mountains is composed. In 

 the sections of the various mountain-ranges, the beds which I con- 

 sider to belong to this group I have lettered a, and, as they are of 

 great thickness, it is probable that they represent some of the strata 

 that are found undisturbed in the prairies. In the exterior range 

 of mountains on the North Saskatchewan, masses of thick-bedded 

 encrinital limestone rise to the height of 1500 feet with a heavy dip 

 to the west; while the pink grits and aluminous shales dip away 

 from them in every direction, just as if they had been masses of 

 intrusive rock thrust up from below, — thus showing the want of con- 

 formity between these limestones and the strata that I consider to 

 intervene between them and the Cretaceous. 



Cretaceous Strata of Vancouver Island and the Gulf of Georgia. — 

 The map No. Y*. is from the Admiralty- chart of the straits be- 

 tween the south end of Yancouver Island and the mainland, but 

 extended northwards so as to include the portion of the coal-mines. 

 On it I have sketched-in the probable range of the different forma- 

 tions, but in a veiy imperfect manner, as my own observations were 

 only the result of a trip made in a canoe with four Indians for seventy 

 miles up the coast to Nanaimo. At Nanaimo coal has been worked 

 by the Hudson Bay Company since 1854, and the total export up to 

 January 2nd, 1860, has been about 12,000 tons. Through the kind- 

 ness of Mr. Niehol, the gentleman in charge of the works, and of 

 Mr. Pearce, of the Land-office, I am able to show a map of the neigh- 

 bourhood, in which I have inserted my own observations of the 

 Geology (Plate XIII.). At the time of my visit there were three 



* It was not thought necessary to publish this map. 



