182 G. M. Dawson — Cretaceous of British Columbia. 



ma, or the recently proposed Puget group of Washington,* 

 both of which Dr. White is inclined to regard as equivalent in 

 a general way to the Laramie.f 



While referring to the Puget group, it may be added that 

 a considerable tract of low land about the mouth of the Fraser 

 and extending northward to Burrard Inlet, is underlain by 

 rocks which though as yet only partially examined, appear 

 with little doubt to correspond to that group, with which they 

 are geographically connected and so far as known lithologically 

 identical. Mr. A. Bowman has ascertained that these strata are 

 at least 3000 feet in thickness, and, like those of the typical area 

 of the Puget group, they hold carbonaceous matter and more 

 or less lignite-coal at many different horizons. 



I may also take the opportunity to note, in this connection, 

 that throughout the entire Cretaceous period as represented on 

 the littoral of British Columbia, there is evidence of a trans-. 

 gressive extension of the area of sedimentation from north to 

 south, the local base of the Cretaceous being found at succes- 

 sively higher stages in the system to the southward. Thus, of 

 five stages into which the Cretaceous of the Queen Charlotte 

 Islands is divided, the three highest only have been found rest- 

 ing on the pre-Cretaceous rocks of the northern part of Van- 

 couver Island. In the Comox and Nanaimo fields, the local 

 base of the Cretaceous corresponds approximately to the high- 

 est observed beds of the first-mentioned locality, and in north- 

 ern Washington, the still higher Puget group occurs in very 

 great mass and apparently almost to the exclusion of the Creta- 

 ceous proper, or marine Cretaceous as distinguished from the 

 Laramie. Though further investigation may disclose small 

 areas of older Cretaceous rocks, occupying the deeper hol- 

 lows in the much-eroded surface of the pre-Cretaceous land, 

 these can scarcely be such as to invalidate the general features 

 as now understood and above outlined. Coupled with this 

 gradual southward encroachment of the Cretaceous Sea, is no 

 doubt the fact that the principal coal-bearing horizon, begin- 

 ning at the north in the earlier Cretaceous (about the horizon 

 of the Gault) is found at Comox and Nanaimo near the base 

 of the Nanaimo group (representing the Chico) and in Puget 

 Sound in the Puget group, which as already noted may, accord- 

 ing to Prof. Newberry and Dr. White, be equivalent to the 

 Laramie. 



We have yet, however, much to learn respecting the physi- 

 cal history of the Cretaceous period in the British Columbian 

 region ; and in view of the above facts relating to the littoral of 

 the Province, it remains in particular to explain the occur- 



* This Jour., vol. xxxvi, 1888. 



f Bulletin of the U. S. Geol. Survey, No. 51, pp. 12, 54. 



