380 DR. J. W. DAWSON ON THE GEOLOGY OF THE 
publications of the Geological Survey of Canada. In these, detailed 
descriptions of the structure and distribution of the different members 
of the series will be found. It is to be observed, however, that in 
consequence of the flatness and slight undulation of the beds, and 
the rarity of good exposures, as well as the probable recurrence of 
similar beds with somewhat similar fossils at different horizons, 
some doubts exist as to the detailed arrangement. 
Formations m the Prairie 
country traversed by the Ca- : 
nadian Pacific. (Order de- harp 
scending. ) 
Laramie or Lignitie Series: sand- | Paleocene or Latest Cretaceous. 
stones, shales and clay, lignite, 
fossil plants, brackish and fresh- 
water shells—1500 feet or more. 
Fox-Hill Group: yellowish sand- | Maestricht Beds (Danien). 
stones and shales with marine 
shells—1500 feet or more. 
Ft. Pierre Group : dark-coloured and | White Chalk (Sénonien). 
grey shales with some sandstone, 
marine fossils and lignite—250 to 
300 feet. ; 
Niobrara Group: limestoneand’marls | Chalk Marl. 
with marine shells, and locally 
shales and sandstones with lignite 
and fossil plants—100 to 200 feet. 
Ft. Benton Growp: light-coloured | Upper Greensand ( Cénomanien). 
shales with shells and bones of 
Dinosaurs and lignite—200 to 400 
feet. 
Dakota Group: brown and grey | Gault. 
shales and sandstones, with lignite 
and lignitic coal—200 to 300 feet. 
The Neocomian series does not 
seem to be represented east of the 
Rocky Mountains, but is found in 
British Columbia. 
I may illustrate this section and also some of the difficulties 
incident to correlation of beds in this region, by reference to some 
exposures which I visited last summer. 
One of these is in the vicinity of the town of Medicine Hat, where 
the railway crosses the South Saskatchewan river. Here the river 
runs through a deep cutting in the Cretaceous rocks, which in some 
places present high and broken clifis seamed with coulées, and in 
others fall into grassy slopes or are encumbered with masses of 
burned shale of a bright red colour, produced by the spontaneous 
combustion of the lignites in the banks. 
About ten miles above Medicine Hat, on the right bank of the 
river, at a point where one of the coal-beds was being opened, the 
cliff is about 300 feet in height, and consists of shale or indurated 
clay, of grey, dark, and purplish colours, with several beds of lignitic 
coal in the central portion; and near the top are irregular layers of 
grey and ferruginous sandstone, some beds of which hold pebbles 
and nodules of iron-ore. 
