

134 B. N. A. BOUNDARY COMMISSION. 
330. A short distance further west, a bed of hard sandstone appears, 
again forming the crest of a ridge, which can be traced.for miles in a 
north-westward course. The strike of the sandstone itself, as shown 
by the stratification lines, is N. 41° W., (mag.) with a south-westerly dip 
at high angles. The persistence of this bed in the line of its strike seems 
to show that, though the strata are so much disturbed, the folding has 
taken place very regularly, parallel to a single direction. The sandstone 
evidently underlies the shell bed last referred to, and must be some 
hundreds of' feet below it. It is yellowish, and not so much indurated as 
that seen in the bed of the river, some layers being still quite soft. In 
this bed was found enclosed, a trunk of silicified wood, the first actually 
observed in situ, though fragments are abundant in the drift several hun- 
dred miles eastward. 
331. The whole of the exposures seen in the vicinity of the St. Mary 
River, evidently belong to one series of beds; but with so much disturb- 
ance and folding, it is probable that in some places, beds both much 
lower and higher than those observed, must occur at the surface. Those: 
seen do not precisely resemble any part of either the Cretaceous or 
Tertiary rocks previously examined. They belong, however, without 
doubt, to the latter series, and are probably near its base. The gradual 
change which is found to effect the Lignite Tertiary, as followed west- 
ward, has here reached its extreme. The occurrence of a true coal, 
differing altogether from the lignites previously found to cover so great 
an area of these western marine representatives of the Lignite Tertiary, 
raises questions of much importance, which are more fully discussed in 
the sequel. 
332. Nearer the base of the mountains, few exposures of the rocks 
of the plains were.seen, and these singularly deficient in fossils or other 
means of correlating them with their eastern representatives. From 
what I could see, however, I am of opinion that in the immediate 
vicinity of the forty-ninth parallel, rocks representing the Lignite 
Tertiary, come almost to the base of the bare rocky cliffs of the 
Mountains. I did not find any beds certainly Cretaceous, but it is 
highly probable that they are brought to the surface in many places, 
and cover larger or smaller areas. 
333. About eight miles north of the entrance to the Kootanie Pass, 
sandstones similar to those seen on the St. Mary River, and clays charged 
in precisely the same way with flakes of calcite, were found within about 
two miles of actual exposures of the paleozoic rocks of the mountains. 
