Cope, in his memoir of 1891, qualifies McConnell's assignment of the uppermost beds of the 

 Cypress hills to the Miocene by describing' them as of Oligocene or Lower Miocene age. 

 Matthew would accord them a more definite horizon at the bottom of the Oligocene, and has 

 expressed the opinion that they are probably of approximately the same age as the Titano- 

 therium beds at, Pipestone springs, Montana. This opinion appears to be borne out to some 

 extent by the list of species from Pipestone springs, published by Dr. Matthew in 1903,* 

 and the collections from the Cypress hills, supplemented by the material secured'in 1904. A 

 provisional list by the writer, of the genera and species included in the collection of 1904, 

 appeared in the Summary Report of this Department for that year. 



That the Cypress Hills Oligocene deposits were the result of rapidly flowing water from 

 the west is evident. The thick basal beds of rounded pebbles represent the work of a strong 

 transporting force, such as would be supplied by a turbulent stream of considerable size carrying 

 eastward material from the Rocky mountains. The sands show false bedding as a result of 

 varying currents. "With the accumulation of material eastward, and a consequent reduction 

 of the transporting force, beds of finer material were deposited at a higher level, and 

 probably on extensive areas of overflow. 



Regarding the Cypress hills as an outlier of the Wood Mountain area, Mr. MuConnell has 

 pointed out that, the part of the country " now covered by the Cypress hills has been changed 

 from a depression in Miocene times into the highest plateau on the plains, which is its present 

 position, entirely by the arrest of denudation over its surface by the hard conglomerate beds 

 which cover it, whilst the surrounding country, destitute of such protection, has been gradually 

 lowered ; and sp aftbrds an index of the amount of material removed from the neighbouring 

 plain- in the age intervening between the deposition of the Miocene and the glacial period." 

 " The absence of any ridge connecting the Cypress hills with the mountains is somewhat 

 surprising, as one would naturally suppose that near their source the pebble-beds would be 

 thicker, and their constituents coarser and better able to resist erosion. This may be due, 

 however, to the fact that the valley of the transporting stream must have been more contracted 

 in its upper part than in the dilated portion in which the existing Miocene beds were deposited. 

 In such a case, its narrow shingle floor would be gradually undermined, and as denudation 

 proceeded would soon perish." 



During his expedition of 1904, the writer examined the exposures of the Oligocene 

 deposits along the eastern escarpment of the Cypress hills as well as on their southern slope 

 in ihe vicinity of Frenchman (Whitemud) river as far west as Fairwell creek, also in the valley 

 of this creek northward to 15one coulee, and for some miles along the upper reaches of the 

 north fork of Swift-current creek. Few fossils were obtained along the eastern, and southern 

 escarpments. 



The greater part of the collection was made in Bone coulee and its numerous tributary 

 coulees, and in its southern extension for a few miles along Fairwell creek. Here the grass- 

 covered slopes are broken by numerous small and isolated weathered outcrops which at first 

 do not appear very promising from a palseontological standpoint. A careful and close search, 

 however, reveals an abundance of — for the most part — mammalian remains. 



* The fauna of the Titanotherium beds at Pipestone springs, Montana ; Bulletin Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. XIX, 

 article VI, 1903. 



