32 



^lomeu-ls aerial trams, the proportion of materials used 

 being five parts limestone to one of shale. 

 During 191 1 the output of cement from this 

 plant exceeded 100,000 barrels of 350 lbs. 

 each, the daily capacity being about 1,000 

 barrels. This company also manufactures lime 

 in three kilns near the cement works, the 

 daily production being about 30 tons. The 

 Fernie shales are being utilized also in the 

 the manufacture of brick by the Keystone 

 Portland Cement Company. The bricks made 

 are of the dry press type and the capacity of 

 the plant is about 20,000 bricks daily. 



The quarries of these two companies afford 

 the best exposures of the Fernie shales seen in the 

 district and a number of fossils have been 

 collected from them. 



For three-quarters of a mile west of Blairmore 

 the railway crosses the strata in regular ascend- 

 ing order when the Blairmore fault is reached, 

 which brings the top of the Kootenay against 

 the upper beds of the Dakota. To the west 

 of the fault the rocks are seen dipping regularly 

 westward, the Dakota overlying the Kootenay 

 and being succeeded by the Crowsnest volcanics, 

 and they by the Benton-Niobrara formation. 

 The volcanics consist of an important inter- 

 calation of trachyte tuffs and flows, at this point 

 having a thickness of about 450 feet (137 m.) 

 but rapidly increasing in thickness to the west. 

 The Benton-Niobrara is composed very largely 

 of dark shales, holding marine fossils, with a 

 few hard sandstone beds [8]. It is here about 

 2,750 feet (838 m.) in thickness. Owing to the 

 soft nature of these shales they have yielded 

 readily to erosion. Math the result that they are 

 usually found occupying wide valleys and 

 depressions where exposures are infrequent. 



At the eastern end of the town of Coleman, 

 the Benton-Niobrara is succeeded by several 

 hundred feet of soft, whitish sandstone, con- 

 stituting the base of the Allison sandstones, 

 which is probably referable to the Belly River 

 formation. These beds are cut off by the 



