CRETACEOUS AND TERTIARY <"' 



more properly to be regarded as the western margin of the Cretaceous of 

 the pUiins than as characteristic of the Cordilleran region. Its characters 

 have been, moreover, quite adetjuately summarized elsewliere, })articu- 

 larly by Dr Whiteaves in liis pai)er })reviously referred to. 



The liaramie is regarded as a series transitional between the Cretaceous 

 and Tertiary, and in the T.aramide range and its foothills passes up from 

 a brackish-water to a purely fresh-water dei)osit. No beds probably 

 referable to this time have been found between this range and the Pacific 

 coast in the entire southern part of British Columbia, but in the extreme 

 north of that province, some deposits apparently referable to the U})})er 

 Laramie occur,'i^ while it is also present in considerable volume in parts 

 of the Yukon district."}" 



On the Pacific coast, the Puget group of Washington has been referred 

 with probabilit}^ to the period represented b)^ the Laramie, and rocks of 

 this group have a somewhat extensive development about the estuary of 

 the Fraser, with a thickness of at least 3,000 feet. They appear to have 

 been deposited in fresh or brackish water, and hold some beds of lignite.']; 

 The upper subdivisions of the Nanaimo and Comox sections, from which 

 no distinctive organic remains have yet been obtained, may also prove 

 to represent the Puget group, or the marine Tejon of California, which 

 is ])erhaps no lower. 



Tertiary 



It has been convenient to refer to the Laramie as a whole in connec- 

 tion with the Cretaceous, although the Upper Laramie is regarded as 

 Eocene. The Puget beds of the Fraser estuary and Burrard inlet, just 

 alluded to, have always been described as Tertiary, and were for a long 

 time regarded as Miocene. 



Subsequent to the Cretaceous period and the great orogenic movements 

 that accompanied its close, the physical conditions in the Rocky Moun- 

 tain region of Canada became much more like those existing today. The 

 Eocene appears for the most part to have been a time of denudation, § but 

 later Tertiary deposits occur in many places and often in extensive de- 

 velopment. On the coast these are usually marine, but no marine beds 

 have been found to the east of the Coast ranges, although it seems possible 

 that evidence may yet be found in the north of the extension of the sea at 

 this time as far east as the upper Canadia n portion of the Yukon basin. 



* Ibid., vol. vii, p. 35 C. 

 t Ibid., vol. iii, p. 149 B. 



X Am. Jour. Sci., vol. xxxiv, p. 182. For descriptions of plants see Trans. Royal Soc. Can., second 

 series, vol. i, sec. iv (1895), p. 1.35. 

 g Trans. Koyal Soc. Can., vol. viii, sec. iv, p. 11. 



