CHAPTER V. 



THE LATE PALEOZOIC OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. 



It is impossible to identify deposits of Permo-Carboniferous age in either 

 the Basin or the Plains Province farther north than has been indicated in 

 the preceding summary descriptions. It is altogether probable that the 

 uplift which occurred in western British Columbia and in Alaska prevented 

 the northern extension of both the basins of deposition ; if any deposits were 

 laid down beyond the limits to which they have been traced they have 

 either been removed by erosion or are buried beneath later deposits, in such 

 large measure that no trace of them has yet been discovered. It is certain, 

 however, that the uplift in the latter part of the Paleozoic terminated marine 

 deposition in northwest North America and formed a surface which must 

 be considered as no small factor in the environment of the life of the time. 

 The exact age of the development of the land conditions is uncertain and the 

 subsequent profound orogenic movements, resulting in metamorphic and vol- 

 canic action, were so vigorous as to mask much of the record and make the 

 interpretation exceedingly difficult. 



The following descriptions of the beds in British Columbia and in 

 Alaska must serve in part as an illustration of what may be accomplished 

 when more exact knowledge of the age of the rocks and their original condi- 

 tion and extent has been gained. 



On the southern part of Vancouver Island, Duncan map area,^ there 

 are two series of volcanic and metamorphosed sediments which are provi- 

 sionally referred to the Carboniferous: 



Malahat volcanics: Massive and schistose meta-dacites and meta-andesites, tufifs, 



and fine-grained cherty rocks. 

 Leech River formation: Slates, slaty and quartzose schists, micaceous quartzites, 



amphibolites, and chloritic schists. If this series is to be correlated with 



the northern deposits at all it is with the lower half of the Ketchikan, etc., 



below the prevailing massive limestone. 



In 1912 appeared Daly's report on the Geology of the Rocky Mountain 

 Cordillera at the Forty-ninth Parallel, Memoir 38 of the Canadian Geological 

 Survey. The detailed account of the geology permits an attempt to cor- 

 relate the Upper Carboniferous and Permian (?) rocks at this latitude. 



^ Clapp, C. H., and H. C. Cooke, Geology of a Portion of the Duncan Map-area, Vancouver 

 Island, British Columbia, Summary Report, Canadian Geological Survey, for 1913, p. 

 89, 1914. 



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