EAELIER TERTIAEY (EOCENE AND OLIGOCENE). 785 



O 10. riNLAY AND OMENICA BIVEBS, BRITISH COLUMBIA. 



McConnell/^^" in his report on Finlay and Omenica rivers, British Cohimbia, 

 says : 



Beds consisting of conglomerates, interbedded in places with shales and sandstones, occupy 

 the bottom of the valley of the Finlay from the Ingenica River north to the Tochieca and con- 

 tinue northward along the vaUey of the latter stream. Similar beds appear again on the Finlay 

 a few miles farther west in a parallel longitudinal valley, which it enters and foUows for some 

 distance. They are also found on the Omenica from the Black Canyon up to its junction with 

 the Tchutetzeca. 



The pebbles of the conglomerate are usually small but in places are several inches in diam- 

 eter. They consist mainly of slate, quartz, and limestone. Oxide of iron is occasionally present 

 in the matrix in sufficient quantities to give a reddish coloration to exposures. The shales are 

 dark in color, are evenly bedded, and are interstratified in places with small Hgnite seams. The 

 sandstones are usually somewhat argillaceous and occasionally consist largely of mica derived 

 from the disintegration of the underlying schists. 



The Tertiary conglomerates and associated rocks * * * a,re distributed in narrow 

 strips along the deep valleys of the district and were nowhere found on the highlands. They 

 were probably deposited in lakes during a Tertiary depression and evidence the pre-Tertiary 

 age of the present main river channels. The conglomerates are occasionally horizontal or 

 nearly so, but in most cases they are tilted at angles ranging from 10° to 40°, showing that they 

 have been affected to some extent by the later mountain-making movements. 



Some leaves and other plant remains, obtained from the shales interbedded with the con- 

 glomerates, were examined by Sir J. William Dawson, who lists eight species and concludes : 



"All the above fossils, so far as determinable, appear to indicate the Upper Laramie period. 

 Of the collections in my possession, the plants seem most nearly to resemble those of the Lignite 

 series on the Mackenzie River, which are referable to the Upper Laramie. There is nothing 

 among the plants to indicate any other horizon." 



Knowlton regards these deposits as of Fort Union age. 



O-P 5. KENAI PENINSULA. 



Kenai Peninsula lies between Cook Inlet and the ocean and is the type lopality 

 of the Kenai formation. The strata have been recently studied by Moffit and 

 Stone, ^"^ who state : 



The upper member of the Ust of bedded sedimentary rocks [of Kenai Peninsula] is a suc- 

 cession of sandstones and shales, with interbedded coal seams, which overlies the lower Jurassic 

 unconformably and forms the whole northern coast line of Kachemak Bay and the eastern coast 

 line of Cook Inlet as far north as Cape Kasilof . Isolated masses of these rocks also occur at 

 various points on the south shore of the bay. These beds, while sHghtly folded and sometimes 

 faulted, are not always thoroughly consohdated. They were described by DaU and furnish the 

 type exposures of the Kenai beds. * * * This formation, consisting of partly consolidated 

 sandstones and shales, is of economic importance because of the hgnitic coal seams interstratified 

 with its various members. As previously pointed out, it rests unconformably on the Seldovia 

 lower Jurassic rocks. 



Fossils from the Kenai beds of Port Graham and Ninilchik were described by Heer as 

 early as 1869. The former locahty was afterward visited by DaU,"* who coUected fossils there, 

 as well as from other locaUties on the north side of Kachemak Bay. The Kenai beds probably 

 underlie the whole of the Kenai Plateau, but their northward dip carries them below sea level 



3 DaU, W. H., Report on coal and lignite of Alaska: Seventeenth Ann. Kept. U. S. Geol. Survey, pt. 1, 1896, 

 pp. 787, 842. 



48011°— 12 50 



