TEIASSIC. 537 



In association with these volcanic rocks limestones, argillites, and quartzites occur, possibly 

 at several diJerent horizons, but one of these, which is of considerable thickness and great 

 persistency and possesses very distinctive characters, has now been recognized at a number of 

 places, from the northern part of the Strait of Georgia round the north end of the island and in 

 Quatsino Sound. This intercalated zone is of considerable thickness, having been estimated 

 at 2,500 feet at one place on the north coast of the island, where it appeared to be fully displayed. 

 Massive limestones, which, when the strata are considerably altered, pass into marble, form its 

 lower portion. The upper part of the limestone becomes interbedded with argillites in regular 

 flaggy layers, and black flaggy argiUites interbedded with quartzites overlie these. Where the 

 top of this argillite series is seen it often holds tufaceous and fine agglomeratic beds, and is 

 followed in ascending order by a great thickness of the altered volcanic rocks. In other localities, 

 the limestone is found to become interbedded with volcanic materials beneath, and though no 

 complete section of the entire series can be oflEered, it is quite clear, from observations made 

 in a great number of places, that these sedimentary materials form an intercalation in the great 

 volcanic series. 



The importance of this fact is apparent when it is stated that the only means of fixing the 

 age of the entire series is afforded by the fossils obtained from the limestone abd argUhte inter- 

 calation. These occur chiefly in the argillites and in passage beds between these and the more 

 massive limestones, and are referable to the so-called Alpine Trias. No fossils except these of 

 this age have yet been found in association with this sub-Cretaceous series in the northern part 

 of Vancouver Island, while the Triassic forms have been recognized in numerous localities. 

 The evidence on which these rocks are, therefore, colored as Triassic on the map, is identical 

 with that on which the reference of the precisely similar series of the Queen Charlotte Islands is 

 based. It is quite possible, in both cases, that the lower portion of the series may include 

 rocks of greater age than Triassic, and the association of Triassic and Carboniferous volcanic 

 rocks in the southern part of the interior of British Columbia lends a degree of probability to 

 the conjecture that rocks of the Carboniferous period may form a portion of those here described. 

 There is, however, ho direct evidence of this, either in the northern part of Vancouver Island 

 or in the Queen Charlotte Islands. 



The rocks beneath those of the Cretaceous age in the southern portion of Vancouver Island 

 are likewise, in great part, altered volcanic materials, which are interbedded with limestones 

 and in some places with argMlites. The conjecture that beds of Carboniferous age may occur 

 together with those referable to the Trias, in the Queen Charlotte Islands and the northern part 

 of Vancouver Island, is strengthened by the fact that the late Mr. J. Richardson obtained a 

 few poorly preserved fossils from limestones interbedded with the altered volcanic rocks of the 

 Ballinac Islands, between Nanaimo and Comox, and at Mount Mark, in the center of Vancouver 

 Island, between Qualicum and Alberni, which were supposed by Mr. Billings to be either 

 Carboniferous or Permian, and probably the former. 



Though an unconformity has been proved to exist in at least one place between the Triassic 

 and Carboniferous volcanic rocks of the southern interior of the province, no such break has 

 yet been found in any part of the sub-Cretaceous series of Vancouver Island, and if rocks of 

 both these periods actually occur there, they can not be at present separated. 



The series as a whole indicates throughout a continuance or recurrence of volcanic phe- 

 nomena on an enormous scale, and must be at least several thousand feet in thickness. 



As a convenient name for the whole I shall employ the term "Vancouver series," including 

 for the present under this name not only the entire mass of volcanic materials which uncon- 

 formably underlie the Cretaceous but also the interbedded limestones and flaggy argillites and 

 quartzites. This name may also be understood to include the similar beds of the Queen 

 Charlotte Islands, as well as those of the southern part of Vancouver Island, to which it was 

 originally applied by Dr. Selwyn in 1871. If this great mass of rocks should eventually prove 

 separable into Triassic and Carboniferous portions, I would suggest the retention of the name 

 Vancouver series for the former. 



The beds of the Vancouver series are the oldest known to occur in the district here described 

 and in the Queen Charlotte Islands and are frequently found in contact with or resting on 



