RED DEER RIVER 361 



clean-cut escarpements throughout the course examined. Pleistocene 

 drift covers the surface of the country, and on the cut banks of the river 

 it is usually present at the top of a given section and varies from 10 to 

 20 feet in depth. 



In the forested section near the mountains, where the sediments are 

 composed largely of sandstones, the river follows a rather devious course 

 generally to the northeastward, but coming to the softer sediments of 

 the prairie country it straightens out and follows a course generally 

 southeastward, joining the South Saskatchewan near the fourth meridian. 



The average drop of the prairie surface from Eed Deer to the mouth 

 of the Eosebud is about 13 feet to the mile, while the river falls from 

 Red Deer to Tail Creek 51/^ feet to the mile ; from Tail Creek to Willow 

 Creek, 8 feet to the mile, and from Willow Creek to Berry Creek, about 

 2% feet to the mile. The beds dip slightly to the southwest, but are 

 nearly horizontal; consequently the strata of each formation are exposed 

 for long distances on either side of the river. 



The Paskapoo formation, according to Mr. J. B. Tyrrell, "Geological 

 Survey of Canada, Report of Progress'^ (new series), volume ii, 1887, 

 page 135E, includes Dr. Dawson's Porcupine Hills and Willow Creek 

 series and the upper part of his Saint Mary series, and on the Little Red 

 Deer River the entire series attains a thickness of 5,700 feet. Near the 

 mountains the strata lie directly on the marine Pierre, where they were 

 deposited in a great synclinal trough, as determined by the Canadian 

 Geological Survey. On the Red Deer River below the town of Red 

 Deer the lowest 500 feet of these rocks are exposed. The beds are 

 chiefly light-gray and yellowish sandstones, usually thick-bedded, fre- 

 quently cross-bedded, and composed of rather coarse grains of quartz, 

 feldspar, and mica loosely cemented together; also of light bluish-gray 

 and olive sandy clays, frequently interstratilied with bands of hard 

 lamellar sandstone, aufl sometimes with layers of concretionary blue 

 limestone. The proportion of sandstone to clay is much greater than 

 in the underlying Edmonton formation, and the massive beds lack the 

 coherence of the Edmonton sandstones. 



At the point of contact bet^veen the hard sandstone layers and the clay 

 underneath frequently occur clay pebbles and poorly preserved Unio 

 shells representing old river channels. 



Near Erickson's Landing, about 20 miles below the town of Red 

 Deer, there is an enormous slid(?, the largest seen along the river, where 

 a full section of the canyon wall 100 yards in leng-th has slipped down 

 to the river level. In this fallen material there are many blocka of 



