F. 



528 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEERITOEIES. 



Feet. 



23. Soft bluisli white sandstone, mostly massive, but in 



places thin bedded 15 



24. Massive light gray or grayish buff sandstone, in 



places almost dark brown, also becoming laminat- 

 ed in parts ,.......> , ^ 70 



25. Soft light grayish sandy shales and clays 12 



26. Grayish buff, massive sandstone 20 



27. Thin sandstones alternating with grayish shaly clays, ^ 



the sandstones almost entirely disappearing in the > G. ' 



lower portion 130 } 



370 to 371 feet. 



The above section was mostly made up from Mr. Meek's notes, which 

 were more minute than my own, though they agreed together in 

 the main. It is serviceable in pointing out the exact horizon of the 

 fossils procured here, which were mostly from the thin layers of Nos. 

 15, 17, and 20, with some vegetable remains in some, of the higher sand- 

 stone layers. Apart from the fossils, the beds in most instances failed 

 to afford well-marked horizons, and sections taken on different lines 

 over the exposures would show numerous differences in the alternations 

 of sandstone, shale, &c., from the one above given. The broken charac- 

 ter of the ridges caused by the superior hardness of certain strata or 

 portions of strata over others, sufficiently indicated this variability. 

 The coal-beds themselves, I have reason to believe, partake somewhat 

 of this character ; in the section they appeared to be of the thickness 

 given, while in some of the openings it was stated that a very much 

 greater thickness was found. One or two exceptions, however, may 

 be mentioned to the general rule : the reddish sandstone, No. 6, appeared, 

 as fa,r as our examinations extended, to be a pretty con:^tant stratum, 

 and the heavy sandstones, Nos. 23 to 26 inclusive, with their underlying 

 thin laminated grayish sandstones and shales, 'No. 27, formed a very 

 well marked horizon. It seems quite probable, indeed, that the 

 series of buff and whitish massive sandstone here, Nos. 23 to 26, is the 

 same as that which appears on the other side of the synclinal, at Sepa- 

 ration, in the heavy face of grayish buff sandstone covered in places 

 with a thin stratum of whitish rock, which formed the lowest member 

 of the series observed there. The two agree very closely in lithological 

 characters, and apparently also in being the first rocks of this character 

 met*v?ith in passing downwards from the soft fresh-water Tertiary beds 

 which fill the synclinal fold. If this supposition is correct we have one 

 pretty definite horizon which will materially aid in determining api)rox- 

 imately the age of these beds. It is to be regretted that our examina- 

 tions near Separation afforded no fossils from the strata nearest the 

 heavy sandstone. 



The fossils found here, besides the vertebrate remains, were mostly 

 from No. 20, and consisted of shells of the genera Ostrea, Anomia, Cor- 

 hicnla, Corhula, Cyrena, Goniobasis? and Frnj^ar^fs, indicating a brack- 

 ish water fauna, and one decidedly different from that of the sandstones 

 farther east. The point where the fresh-water deposits begin, and the 

 estuary or brackish-water life ceased, could not be determined, but I 

 am inclined to think that it is not very far above these beds, perhaps a 

 little beyond the scope of the section given above. Mr. Meek was dis- 

 posed to give the separation as very near this point, considering the 

 brackish- water deposits most probably Cretaceous, and those above them 

 Tertiary. It is possible that there is no very definite horizon of separa- 



