PALEOZOIC UNDIVIDED. 351 



Haycock ^^^^ adds : 



Dr. Dawson's descriptions of the metamorpnic rocks of the northern and eastern portions 

 of the island apply with such exactness to this series of the west coast that there can he no 

 reasonable doubt of the latter being a continuation of the former. They may thus be considered 

 as belonging to his Vancouver series and mainly of Triassic but possibly in their lower portions 

 of Carboniferous age. 



Clapp has described the topography and geology of the southeastern and 

 southern portions of Vancouver in two articles based on reconnaissance surveys 

 made since 1908. In his earlier report "' he says : 



The formations exposed in the southern part of Vancouver Island range from the Devonian 

 period or older, to the Pleistocene and Recent. * * * 



The Tertiary sediments of the south coast are the j'oungest consoKdated rocks. Rocks 

 which when unaltered resemble the Coal Measures have along certain belts been metamorphosed. 

 Metamorphic rocks underlie the greater part of the region. 



The older metamorphic rocks can not be definitely assigned to any one period. A careful 

 search for fossils was made in the calcareous rocks, now completely crystallized, but without 

 success until the writer's attention was called to the occurrence of fossil corals on the south 

 shore of Cowichan Lake. * * * Although the material has not yet been worked up, the 

 fauna undoubtedly belongs to the Devonian period. * * * 



Provisionally, therefore, one can place the great series of old metamorphics in the south- 

 eastern part of Vancouver Island as late Middle Paleozoic. 



Dawson and other earher writers classify the old crystallines which underlie the Coal 

 Measures as the Vancouver series and place them in the Triassic period with possibly some 

 Carboniferous members. As the evidence for assigniug part of this great series of rocks — 

 especially those in the northern part of the island — to the Triassic is indisputable, and as 

 Dawson suggests that, should this series eventually prove separable into other formations 

 besides the Triassic, the name Vancouver series be retained for the Triassic members, it seems 

 best to restrict the term Vancouver series to Triassic rocks of the northern part of the island, 

 and to introduce a new term for the older rocks. Hence I suggest the term Victoria series 

 as a general name embracing the older metamorphics of the southern part of the island, 

 belonging to the Paleozoic era. 



In- his later report, on the southern portion of Vancouver, Clapp ^^^ says : 



The oldest group of rocks in the southern part of Vancouver Island is the Victoria group. 

 This name was proposed by the writer to include the older metamorphic rocks that occur in 

 the neighborhood of Victoria and which were assigned to the Paleozoic and provisionally, in 

 part, to the Devonian, on the evidence of fossils secured at Cowichan Lake. A later, much 

 more complete collection of fossils from the same locahty now shows the fauna to be either 

 Triassic or Jurassic. The correlation of the formations is still doubtful, but it is probable 

 that a large part of the rocks assigned to the Victoria group belongs to an older group of rocks 

 than those in which the above fossils occur, and they are still assigned, provisionally, to the 

 Paleozoic. 



In view of the uncertainty of age and correlation of the rocks of these islands, 

 and because the marine Triassic in the Canadian Cordillera, of which these islands 

 are considered a part, is mapped with the Paleozoic undivided, these rocks are 

 shown by the Paleozoic pattern on the present map. 



For a description of the Triassic as disclosed in both Vancouver and the Queen 

 Charlotte Islands, the reader is referred to M 9-10 and N 8-9, Chapter XII (pp. 

 536, 539) ; for a description of the Lower Cretaceous of the Queen Charlotte group 

 to N 8-9, Chapter XIV (pp. 628-630); and for the Tertiary of Graham Island (of 

 the Queen Charlotte group) to N 8-9, Chapter XVII (p. 834). 



