FERNIE SHALE FORMATION 299 



shales are from two formations and the Queen Charlotte Island series, 

 if again studied, might allow this subdivision to be made. 



Souhward the formation has been traced in the mountains through 

 a succession of fault blocks to the Elk Elver coal field and is the series 

 there called by Mr McEvoy the Fernie shale. Few fossils have been 

 collected from the southern portion, owing probably to the fact that the 

 outcrops of these soft beds are partly concealed, but from near the mining 

 town of Fernie Belemnites and Ammonites were obtained. One of the 

 latter is described by Doctor Whiteaves as Cardioceras canadense.* This 

 would appear to be Jurassic, as the formation is continuous and bears 

 the same relation to the coal-bearing Kootanie series above, the horizons 

 should be but little below that from near Minnewanka lake, which is 

 correlated with the lower shales of the Queen Charlotte islands. These 

 latter, as noted above, are declared to be well down in the Jurassic. 



The deposits at Fernie consist of 500 feet of sandy argiilites at the 

 base, with 1,060 feet of black and brownish shales above. Eastward 

 through the Crows Nest pass the series decreases, and at Blairmore, near 

 the edge of the mountains, there is only 700 feet. Projecting these beds 

 eastward by assuming a somewhat uniform decrease, it would seem that 

 they may form a small sheet eastward from the mountains, the edge 

 approximating a line southeast from near the Moose Mountain locality. 



Kootanie 



Dark, coarse sandstone, with brown shales and coal seams, 375 feet. 



This sandstone coal-bearing member of the Kootanie is the represent- 

 ative of thicker measures in the type locality, and all the fossils ob- 

 tained, on which the discussion of the age of the formation was based, 

 were obtained from within its boundaries. The base of the formation 

 consists of hard sandstones, which are easily traced, making a convenient 

 horizon marker for the base of the formation. Above the coal seams 

 there is a persistent horizon of conglomerate, and in the sandstones suc- 

 ceeding it plants of the Dakota type have been found, so that the con- 

 glomerate band for practical purposes is taken as the top of the forma- 

 tion. The thickness on the Elk Elver escarpment of this formation 

 measures 5,300 feet. Eastward in the Blairmore district, just within 

 the mountains, it has decreased to 740 feet. North, near Banff, it is 

 3,900 feet, but in the section under discussion there is but 375 feet in- 

 cluded between beds bearing characters similar to the limiting members 

 within the mountains. It would thus seem that the formation might 

 not extend much farther to the east in this latitude; but to the south 



♦Ottawa Naturalist, vol. xvii, p. 65. 



