SHELL-BEDS IN BEITISH COLTTMBIA. 285 



were all so shattered that, at the time, I was not certain of their 

 marine origin, but subsequent examination has proved this beyond 

 doubt. 



The stratified clay in which the shells were found contained no 

 pebbles, and, though somewhat disturbed, had evidently been de- 

 posited where it occurred. A large and beautifully striated boulder 

 of grey granite (10 feet x 4 x 6) lay at the foot of one of the 

 sections, and seemed to have slipped out of the clays, but I saw no 

 such boulder in place. The red clay full of rough angular stones, 

 which capped the section, was probably of glacial origin, but might 

 have been an accumulation of talus shed from the steep mountain- 

 slope behind the section. 



A little further north there was another cutting about 40 feet 

 deep, in which the section exhibited differed considerably from that 

 shown in fig. 2. It showed — 



A. Rough angular debris of variable thickness, overlying 



B. Thin seam of cross-bedded silts of limited extent, cut out in 



either direction by A, overlying 



C. Stratified gravel with glaciated blocks. 



Here I could find no shells, nor could I be certain that the silt 

 was the same as in the previous section, though the evidence greatly 

 favoured this view. 



The next cutting, 100 yards further north, showed nothing but 

 hard till, in a section 50 feet deep. 



A little way beyond this, the section (about 60 feet) exhibited 

 only well-bedded and waterworn gravel, through which ran a thin 

 seam of silt, overlying hard stony blue till. 



Further on, the upper gravel of the last section became rough and 

 angular ; and then an outstanding bluff of the solid rock jutted out 

 to the river, and through this the road had been quarried. At the 

 other side there were no drifts to be seen on the mountain-slopes 

 near the railway, and it seemed to me that the bluff had sheltered 

 the deposits behind it and preserved them from denudation. 



Where the shells were found, the height of the railroad above the 

 Harrison river is about 40 feet, and as the Eraser at its junction 

 vrith the Harrison is not less than 55 miles from its embouchure, 

 these beds cannot be less than 100 feet above sea-level. 



The weather was so very wet at the time of my visit that I did 

 not attempt to investigate the bed or trace out its extent, except so 

 far as this could be done from the railroad, as the thick forests 

 which covered the ground on all sides — difiicult to pass through at 

 any time on account of the underbush — were extremely disagreeable 

 to go into after so much rain. 



Some of the crushed shells which I brought away with me I have 

 submitted to Mr. Clement Reid, and he has recognized amongst 

 them fragments of the following : — 



Saxicava rugosa. 

 Tellina, sp. 

 Mytilus, sp. 



Balauus, sp. 



Foraminifera (undetermined). 



