
a ne ee 

ROCKY MOUNTAINS—REVIEW OF SECTION. ° 69 
147. The difference in character of the country on the east and west 
sides of the first range of the mountains, which on the forty-ninth 
parallel constitutes the water-shed, is very striking. Standing on one 
of the higher summits, glimpses of the treeless prairie can be 
seen between the eastern bordering mountains. The undulations of the 
grassy foot-hills are, from the elevation, completely lost; and the plain 
appears to differ only in colour from the sea. Looking westward, even 
where the view is most extensive, it is one of tumultuous peaks and 
ridges, pine-clad or bare and rocky, to the horizon; and these are only 
the first of those which in almost unbroken series extend to the Pacific 
Coast, a distance of four hundred miles. 
Comparison of the Rocks seen in the Vicinity of the Forty-ninth Parallel, 
with those of other Localities. 
148. Sir J. Richardson has described the Rocky Mountains, where he 
met with them on the Mackenzie River, as being in great part composed 
of Carboniferous limestone. Dr. Hector is, so far as I know, the only 
other geologist who has examined their eastern ranges in British 
America. He had the opportunity of traversing them in several 
places, and has noted the occurrence of limestones of Carboniferous 
age, in many localities. Im the eastern range, where cut by the 
Bow River, he describes a “deep blue limestone, which weathers to a 
light blue colour, and is traversed by veins of calespar. The surfaces of 
these beds are very rough, and masses of chert are left protruding by the 
action of the weather.” They were found to contain fragments of 
Encrinite stems; also, Producta and Spirifer; and are consequently of 
Carboniferous or Devonian age. They are said, in this. locality, to be 
associated with earthy shales.* Near the same place—in Castle 
Mountain—limestone beds occur, which would appear from the descrip- 
tion, to have been estimated at about 2,000 feet in thickness. They 
overlie quartzites and quartzite-conglomerates, though not directly. 
Somewhat further west, at the head of the Vermilion River, a similar 
limestone is again found, with fossils like those last mentioned. 
Certain hill-sides are also described as consisting of “ horizontal strata of 
blue slate rock, closely banded with red stripes” which may be supposed 
to represent Series C. 
149. On the upper waters of the North Saskatchewan, Carboniferous 
*Palliser Exploration of British North America, 1863, pp, 99-100. 
t Ibid., p. 102 { Ibid., p. 104, 

