WALCOTT.] CANADIAN EXTENSION. 163 



itic micaceous sandstones, with bands of siliceous limestones and indu- 

 rated clay shales, which he refers to the Algonkian. 1 



4 



CANADIAN EXTENSION. 



The discovery of rocks of Cambrian age in the western portion of 

 British Oofumbia is of recent date. During the summer of 1883 Dr. 

 G. M. Dawson and Mr. E. G. McConnell investigated the Paleozoic rocks 

 on the line of the Canadian Pacific Railroad and discovered at the Crow 

 Nest Pass a great thickness of limestone of Devonian age, beneath 

 which is a great series of slaty and quartzite rocks. No fossils were 

 fraud iu the beds, but some were found in detached fragments, which 

 are referred to the Cambrian. 2 In the report published in 1886 Dr. 

 G. M. Dawson says that of the rocks referred to throughout his report 

 as Cambrian no complete general section can be offered. Along the 

 line of the Columbia Valley the basal beds were not observed. The 

 component beds of the great Cambrian series are, in the main, quartz- 

 itesand quartzitic shales, passing into argillites, occasionally including 

 limestones or more or less calcareous or dolomitic materials and con- 

 glomerates. 3 



Near Waterton Lake a section was measured 3,000 feet in thickness; 

 another at South Kootanie Pass had a mininum (estimated) thickness 

 of the outcropping Cambrian beds of 11,000 feet, and it included 

 neither the summit nor the base of the series. Other sections were 

 measured, but none were found in which the whole volume of the form- 

 ation could be ascertained. 4 



Dr. Dawson compares these sections with that of the Wasatch Moun- 

 tains of Utah; and more recent discoveries have shown that they are 

 quite similar in character. If the view of separating the pre Olenellus 

 beds from the Cambrian is accepted, most of the South Kootanie 

 Pass rocks will be referred to the Algonkian, corresponding in this 

 respect to the Algonkian (?) of the Big Cottonwood section of the 

 Wasatch Mountains, Utah. 



Dr. Dawson further states that Mr. S. H. Winwood announced the 

 discovery of Cambrian fossils in the Kicking Horse Pass in a letter 

 to tne Geological Magazine in 1885. 5 From among the specimens 

 obtained at that time Mr. C. D. Walcott recognized Olenellus howelli 

 and Olenoides levis, trilobites characteristic of the Prospect Mountain 

 group of Nevada. 6 Numerous other references occur in Dr. Dawson's 

 report in connection with the description of the local details of the 



1 Administrative Report, Montana Division. TJ. S. Geol. Surv., 10th Ann. Rep., 1890, p. 131. 



•Dawson, Geo. M.: Recent geological observations on the Canadian Northwest Territory. Science, 

 vol. 3, 1884 p. 648. 



3 Preliminary report on the physical and geological feature of that portion of the Rocky Mountains 

 between lat. 49° and 51° 30'. Geol. Survey Canada, new ser., vol. 1, 1886, p. 157B. 



4 0p.cit.,p.l58B. 



5 Geological age of the Rocky Mountains. Geol. Mag., new ser., dec. 3, vol. 2, 1885, p. 240. 



6 Preliminary report on the physical and geological features of that portion of the Rocky Mountains 

 between latitudes 49° and 51° 30'. Geol. Surv. Canada, new ser., vol. 1, 1886, p. MOB. 



