298 D. B. DOWLING — CRETACEOUS SECTION IN SOUTHERN ALBERTA 



them; but the finding by Mr Cairnes of a few Belemnites excludes them 

 from the Paleozoic. The limestone here formed the floor on which the 

 Mesozoic sediments were laid down; but in the many contacts observed 

 at various places throughout Canada the floor evidently consisted of the 

 overlapping edges of several formations. The crustal movements, how- 

 ever, not having been severe, the unconformity is not conspicuous and is 

 indicated mainly by the different age of the beds in contact and the 

 varying amount of the time interval so indicated. 



To the west of this locality there are two troughs in the mountains that 

 show Mesozoic rocks resting on a series of red sandy shales and buff 

 quartzites that are above the Carboniferous limestone and seem to occupy 

 a horizon similar to that of the Minnelusa and Opeche formations of the 

 Black hills. These probably represent the top of the Carboniferous or 

 early Permian. East of the mountains the exposures on the Peace and 

 Athabaska rivers and in Manitoba show Cretaceous resting on Devonian. 

 Southward in the Black hills the section is apparently complete. 



Fernie Shale 



This formation, which is represented by 225 feet of dark brown to 

 black shale, seems to represent the eastern margin of much thicker de- 

 posits of marine origin occupying a similar position in the mountain 

 troughs to the west. The finding of Belemnites of apparently similar 

 species in both helps the correlation. The formation is traced both north 

 and south along the Cascade and Bow River trough for a long distance 

 and varies somewhat in thickness. On the Cascade river, near the outlet 

 of a stream from Minnewanka lake, the section measured 1,600 feet. 

 The top of the formation is here difficult to define, as the Kootanie forma- 

 tion in the lower part consists of brown shales and thin bedded sand- 

 stones. Few fossils were found in the exposures, with the exception of 

 the Belemnites above mentioned, but in a shallow trough at the east end 

 of Minnewanka lake (formerly Devils lake) Mr McConnell discovered a 

 bed rich in marine fossils. These have been described by Doctor Whit- 

 eaves.* They show a remarkable similarity to the fauna of the lower 

 part of the Queen Charlotte Island series, the "lower shales" of Dawson. 

 This series was incorporated by him in the Cretaceous, but the general 

 Jurassic aspect of most of the fossils was remarked by Doctor Whiteaves, 

 although he accepted the stratigraphic position assigned by Dawson. 

 The work of Messrs Stanton and Martinf on the Jurassic of Cooks inlet 

 and the Alaska peninsula seems to show conclusively that tins fauna be- 

 longs well down in the Jurassic. Evidently the fossils from the lower 



♦"Contributions to Canadian Palaeontology," vol. i, part ii. 

 1 Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., vol. 10, p. 402. 



