126 G. 2f. Dawson — E'arlier Cretaceous Rocks, etc. 



rather to favor a belief in continuous sedimentation. Further, 

 that while the base of the Comanche is described as equivalent 

 to the Purbeck and Wealden, or lowest beds of the European 

 Cretaceous, Mr. Whiteaves finds no evidence in the mollusks 

 of even the lowest beds of the Kootanie and Queen Charlotte 

 Islands formations of a horizon below that represented by the 

 Gault in Europe. This can scarcely be regarded as divergent 

 from the previous definition of the age of the same forma- 

 tions by their contained fossil plants, as the lower Cretaceous 

 flora may be expected, from European and Asiatic analogies, 

 to extend upward to the top of the Neocomian, between which 

 and the Cenomanian the Gault may be said to be a transitional 

 formation. The question, however, of the precise systematic 

 position of these representatives of the earlier Cretaceous of 

 the northwestern province of the continent, is one apart from 

 that of their interrelation and general correspondence, which 

 alone it is at present intended to point out. Finally, it may be 

 noted, that while these formations mark the occurrence of a 

 first Cretaceous subsidence in the northwestern portion of the 

 continent, this subsidence has there been neither so great nor 

 so continuous as in the case of the Comanche, a fact shown by 

 the generally coarse, clastic character of the rocks, the com- 

 parative absence of limestones and the occurrence of beds of 

 coal. 



In this note it has been possible merely to outline the more 

 interesting general results so far arrived at with respect to that 

 part of the Cretaceous which underlies the Dakota horizon in 

 British Columbia and in the western portion of the Northwest 

 Territory. For details, some of which have important bearings 

 on the general question, reference must be made to the various 

 publications which have been cited and to forthcoming reports 

 of the Geological Survey of Canada in which the facts more 

 recently obtained will appear at length. The subjoined table 

 presents in a diagramatic- form the relations of the various 

 formations above referred to, together with that of some over- 

 lying portions of the Cretaceous, not here specially alluded to, 

 but which occur in the same region. 



Geological Survey of Canada, April 20, 18S9. 



EXPLANATION OF MAP, p. 121. 



The principal known localities of occurrence of the Earlier Cretaceous rocks, 

 are indicated by the black dots. Nearly all of these represent places from which 

 characteristic fossils have been obtained. 



The eastern extension of the Pacific Ocean in the earlier part of the Cretaceous 

 period is approximately shown by that of the unshaded part of the map. 



