QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 49 B 



Triassic. 



The rocks seen in the shores of Houston Stewart Channel are every- Tr 



" Houston 



where very much disturbed, shattered by faults and traversed by Stewart Chan- 

 innumerable dykes. This region lies in the line of the mountainous 

 axis of the islands, and though no extensive granitic masses appear 

 here, the intensity of the force brought to bear on this region is well 

 exemplified. About the middle of the south-west reach of the channel, 

 in a bay on the south-east side, are extensive exposures of limestones 

 and flaggy argillites, with general westerly dips. The limestones are 

 generally in thin beds, bluish-black on fresh fracture, and frequently 

 foetid when struck. They are cherry, and contain blackish rounded 

 masses or root-like concretions of silica, and blend with the shales or 

 flaggy argillites, which appear to occupy a superior position. The 

 argillites are calcareous throughout, and generally each bed is a few 

 inches thick, though in some cases finely shaly. Fossils were found 

 in abundance in some of the shaly layers and in the limestones. Mr. 

 J.. P. Whiteaves enumerates the following species from this locality. 

 They are evidently synchronous with the so-called Alpine Trias of Triassic fossi] , 

 Nevada : — 



1. Amplexus (?), sp. nov. 



2. Monotis subcircularis, G-abb. 



3. Halobia Lommeli, Wiss. 



4. Sphcera Whitneyi (?), Meek. 



5. Arcestes Gabbii, Meek. 



6. and 7. Fragments of two species of Ammonitoid shells, one of 

 which appears to be new. They probably belong to different genera. 



8. Belemnites, sp. nov. 



Felspathic dykes, generally of pale greenish-grey colour, traverse 

 the rocks in all directions, and stand out like ruined walls when the 

 softer beds have been weathered away from them. These so compli- 

 cate the section as to render accurate measurement impossible, but 

 there is probably 500 feet or more in thickness of the limestones and 

 argillites. 



At the point on the east side of the entrance to Rose Harbour, large 

 masses of limestone, similar to the more compact layers of that above 

 described, again appear. They are nearly vertical in attitude, with 

 a strike of about 1ST. 26° E., but are traversed by a great number of 

 dykes and intrusive masses of felspathic rock. A few fossils, among 

 which are fragments of gasteropoda, apparently of the genera Murchi- 

 sonia, Xuticopsis and Macrocheilus, were here again found. Chert is 

 abundant. Following the strike of the limestone in this place, and 



