352 



stages of denudation possible with the present river level. 



As seen from below, the cut banks of the river and coulees 

 and the sides of the buttes show the typical exposures of 

 the Edmonton series. From the level of the river flats 

 below to the grassy slope above, the light and dark coloured 

 banks or beds are so marked and so characteristic that 

 even from a distance of some miles one has no difficulty 

 in detecting them and tecognizing them as belonging in 

 all probability to this formation. On close examination 

 it is seen that the light coloured bands are greenish or 

 yellowish gray in colour, and consist of sandstone, shale or 

 clay, with the clay predominating. 



The dark coloured bands are red or black in colour, the 

 red bands being often similar in composition to the gray, 

 with the exception that they have a much higher ferric 

 iron content. In some cases this iron has been concentrated 

 in several bands of ironstone concretions. These bands 

 are in general from four to six inches (10 to 15 cm.) in 

 thickness, and are distributed at various levels in different 

 places. On the weathered bank they project from the 

 slope for a few inches, until the nodules of which they are 

 composed are undermined, and of their own weight fall to 

 the bottom of the bank. 



The black bands are either of a dark shale, or mark the 

 outcroppings of different seams of coal which may be as 

 many as six in number, although this number is not con- 

 stant, since these beds are not always continuous for great 

 distances. The smallest of these coal seams at this place 

 is about six inches (15 cm.) in thickness, and the largest 

 about three feet (ira.). 



As exposed at the surface the coal is of poor quality, 

 being lignitic in character. It crumbles and disintegrates 

 rapidly on exposure to the changes of the atmosphere, 

 but when freshly mined or when exposed under water, 

 the quality is much better and has a wide local use. In 

 many instances it is simply quarried or mined out of the 

 nearest exposure by the farmers themselves, but in addition 

 to this there are several mines which supply the towns and 

 such of the farmers who care to buy at the pit mouth. 



It is within one of these seams that the greatest amount 

 of fossil wood is preserved. Stumps, tree trunks, and 

 large slabs of "wood" may be found lying along the river 

 flats near the place where they have weathered out of the 

 coal seam. 



