18 B. N. A. BOUNDARY COMMISSION. 

found to rest on the Cretaceous in other than a conformable position. 
North of the Line, the only one of these later formations yet recognized is 
the lowest or Lignite Tertiary. 
32. Ow knowledge of the Cretaceous beds beyond the North 
Saskatchewan, is as yet very limited, and depends almost entirely on the. 
observations of Sir J. Richardson, aided by chance notes of other 
explorers. not professed geologists. It is likely, however, that a trough 
. « 
Re ee eae ee Se 
or series of more or less isolated basins of lignite and coal-bearing 
strata, follows near the eastern base of the mountains the whole way 7a 
to the Arctic Sea. A part of these beds is known to represent the 
Lignite Tertiary of the south; but judging from their association else- 
where, they will probably be found to rest on Cretaceous rocks through- 
out. Indeed, from the fragmentary nature of the information concerning 
this great northern region, and the unsettled questions with regard to 
eee 
the age of the coal series of the analogous region near the mountains and 
south of the North Saskatchewan, it is impossible to decide whether some 
of the coals and lignites described, may not belong to the Cretaceous 
formation itself. The existence of Cretaceous beds has, however, only 
been determined with certainty ata single locality, on the Bear Lake 
River, near its junction with the Mackenzie. Sir J. Richardson here 
discovered an Ammonite among sandstones and shales which he states 
resemble those of the coal measures. Prof. Meek has detected fragments 
of an Amimonite and Inoceramus in Mr. Kennicott’s collection from the 
same place,* and had formerly described two species of Ammonites from 
that neighbourhood, submitted to him by Prof. Hind, as A. Barnstoni and 
A. Billingsi. + 
33. The subdivision of the Cretaceous, as it occurs in Manitoba and 
the North-west Territories will require discussion after the systematic 
description of the localities in which it has been examined. From its 
close general resemblance however, to that which has been studied in 
the western part of the United States, it will be useful to have the Upper 
Missouri Section of Meek and Hayden, which has now become typical, 
as a standard of comparison. 
The formation is there composed as follows in descending order : 
* Trans. Chicago Acad. Sci., vol, I., p. 72. 
7 Report Assineboine and Saskatchewan Expedition, p. 184, 

