76 G. M. DAWSON — ROCKY MOUNTAIN REGION IN CANADA 



ville or lower division now made of that group, the characteristic Aucella 

 of which is often the commonest fossil.* In the northern part of the 

 })rovince, hetween the 55th and 58th parallels of latitude, rocks chiefly 

 referable to this period have lately been found to characterize a wide area 

 of country east of the Coast ranges, and here, as well as in the south, 

 they frequently hold coal. 



On Tatla3''oco lake, the beds of the same name are found to be under- 

 lain in apparent conformity b}^ rocks of volcanic origin, to which the 

 name " Porph3''rite series " was originall}' applied. f No fossils have been 

 found in these, but the similarly constituted Iltasyouco beds (latitude 

 53°) contain molluscs that are now referred b}^ Dr Whiteaves to the 

 Queen Charlotte formation. J Ash beds containing similar fossils have 

 been discovered on the Skeena to the east of the Coast ranges, and it is 

 thus evident that vulcanism plaj^ed an important part in this Earlier 

 Cretaceous time, not only in the Queen Charlotte islands, but also further 

 to the eastward. 



Fossils representing the same Earlier Cretaceous period have been found 

 in late years far to the north, in the Yukon basin, on the Lewes river, 

 and on the Porcupine, beyond the Arctic circle. § 



The Kootanie formation was so named and characterized as Lower 

 Cretaceous, because of its peculiar flora, by Sir J. Wm. Dawson in 1885. || 

 It represents the Earlier Cretaceous of the Laramide region in Canadian 

 territory, and has since been found to extend a considerable distance into 

 Montana. Its typical area is separated from the Cretaceous of the wes- 

 tern part of British Columbia by the Selkirk and other ranges that ap- 

 ))ear to have existed as dry land at this time. It no doubt l)lends with 

 the Queen Charlotte formation further to the north, and it may event- 

 ually be found that no useful line can be maintained between the two 

 formations. The Kootanie seems, however, to have been for the most 

 part deposited in a frejjh or brackish water basin, and for some years 

 scarcely any marine forms were known to occur in it.^f A number of 



* Annual Report, Geol. Surv. Can., vol. vii (N. S.), p. 64 B. 



tGeol. Mag., Decade II, vol. iv, July, 1877. 



X Originall}' described us Junissic. Bee Geol. Mag., Decade Il.vol.viii, p. 218, and Dr Whiteaves on 

 the " Cretaceous system in Canada," Trans. Roy. Soc. Can., vol. xi, sec. iv (189.3). For descriptions 

 of invertebrate fossils of the Cretaceous, see especially the following works by Dr ,1. F. Whiteaves : 

 Mesozoic Fossils, vol. i, parts 1, 2, A, and 4; Contributions to Canadian Paleontology, vol. i, part 2; 

 Trans. Roy. Soc. Can., vol. i, sec. iv. p. 81 ; ibid, (second series), vol. i, pp. 101, 119. 



'i Annual Report, Geol. Surv. Can., vol. iii (N. S.), p. 36 B. Ibid., vol. ix, pp. 21 I), 124 D. et seq. 



II Science, vol. v. p. 531. Trans. Roy. Soc. Can., vol. iii, sec. iv. For descriptions of Cretaceous 

 plants .see particularly the following papers by Sir J. Wm. Dawson, in Trans. Roy. .Soc. Can. : Cre- 

 taceous and Tertiary Floras of British Columbia, vol. i (1882) ; Mesozoic Floras of the Rocky 

 Mountain Region, vol. iii (1895) ; Correlation of Early Cretaceous Floras, etc., vol. x (1892) ; New 

 Cretaceous plants from Vancouver Island, vol. xi (1893). 



If Annual Report, Geol. Surv. *Can., vol. i (N. S.), p. 162 B. 



