TEIASSIC. 539 



In explanation of the above sections, it may be added that although placed in parallel 

 colunans, the equivalency of the several groups of beds is intended merely to be suggested in 

 the most general way. If the maximum thickness be assigned to the lower group in the Nicola 

 section, there would be a nearer approximation to correspondence in total thickness, but the 

 renderirig of this part of the section is doubtful. Further it must be noted as possible that 

 the amphibolites and argillites of the Douglas Lake vicinity, with a thiclaiess of about 7,000 

 feet, may eventually have to be added to the Nicola formation in that region. * * * 



In the year following that in which the Triassic age of these rocks was recognized in the 

 inland region of British Columbia and the name Nicola series proposed for them, Triassic rocks 

 of essentially the same character were discovered in the coast region, in the Queen Charlotte 

 Islands. At a still later date, the formation last referred to was found to be continued to the 

 southeastward, in the line of the same mountain axis, and to form the greater part of the older 

 rocks of the northern portion of Vancouver Island. Like the Nicola formation, the Vancouver 

 formation, as it was then called, is chiefly composed of old volcanic products. * * * [ggg 

 pp. 536-538.] With these volcanic products limestones and argUlites holding characteristic 

 Triassic fossUs are interbedded. 



In the Vancouver formation, or series, the limestones and argillites are somewhat more 

 important than in the Nicola formation, but otherwise the resemblance between the two, both 

 in regard to their original mode of production and their present appearance, practically amounts 

 to identity. Notwithstanding this fact, it is believed to be appropriate to retain distinctive 

 local names for the two great developments of Triassic rocks in British Columbia. In both 

 cases the lower and upper limits of the formation remain more or less indefinite, chiefly because 

 of the absence throughout the great masses of the strata of any organic remains, and thus one 

 may extend in its lower or upper beds through a part of the geological time scale considerably 

 greater than the other. It is moreover found to be a general rule in this part of the Cordfllera 

 that exact equivalency of formations is scarcely to be sought for at any considerable distance 

 across the prevalent northwest and southeast trend of the main orographic features, and in 

 this case the nearest recognized representatives of the two formations are separated by a gap 

 of about 150 miles transverse to this direction. 



In an immediately succeeding paragraph Dawson refers to the occurrence of 

 "Triassic" red beds in latitude 49° 30' in the Rocky Mountains. The rocks are 

 described in an earlier report/^^ and were later placed by Willis'*" in his Kintla 

 formation, which belongs to the Belt series (pre-Cambrian) . 



N &-9. QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 



On Dawson's map of 1878 the southern portion of the Queen Charlotte Islands 

 is represented as consisting of Triassic rocks. The report states :^*^* 



In a preceding report on British Columbia it has been found necessary to mclude for the 

 present the Paleozoic and Triassic rocks under a single heading." They lie together unconform- 

 ably beneath well-characterized Cretaceous beds but are so much involved that no attempt 

 has been made to separate them except locally. In the southern part of the interior of British 

 Columbia both Carboniferous and Triassic fossils have been found among these older rocks, 

 but no forms of greater antiquity. In the Queen Charlotte Islands, now reported on, fossils 

 have been discovered in the rocks unconformably underlying the Cretaceous in a number of 

 places. These serve to characterize a certain zone of argillites and limestones, which is fre- 

 quently repeated in sections along different parts of the coast, as distinctively Triassic, and 

 show it to represent the so-called Alpine Trias which is so largely developed in California and 

 Nevada. No forms distinctively Carboniferous or Paleozoic have yet been discovered, but 

 from the intimate association of Carboniferous and Triassic rocks in the southern part of the 

 province, and more particularly from the occurrence of great masses of rocks largely volcanic 



a Report of Progress, 1877-78. 



