ted 
648 
ble-beds, or conglomerates, are frequently com- 
posed of stones several inches in diameter ; 
and as they occur at a distance of over two 
hundred miles from their nearest possible 
source, and no signs whatever of ice-action 
appear, the problem of their mode of transport 
becomes a difficult one. A few vertebrate re- 
mains obtained from these beds appear to be 
referable to Brontotherium. 
It may be mentioned, in this connection, 
that the discovery of these tertiary pebble-beds 
to some extent tends to modify statements 
previously made, respecting the origin of 
somewhat similar shingle-deposits of later date 
in this vicinity. The transport of a portion, 
at least, of the quartzite shingle immediately 
underlying, and apparently attached to, the 
bowlder-clay, may have occurred in the mio- 
cene period, and its denudation and re- 
arrangement been effected in early glacial 
times. Of the older formations in this part of 
the north-west, the following classification has 
been adopted : — 
( Porcupine-Hill beds. 
Willow-Creek beds. 
St. Mary River beds. 
( Fox-Hill sandstones (inconstant). 
Cretaceous 4 Pierre shales. 
proper. Belly-River series. 
| Dark shales, supposed to underlie the above. 
Laramie. 
The subdivisions of the Laramie appear to 
be of local importance only, but are useful in 
the region here specially referred to, on account 
of the very great thickness of that formation. 
The upper part of the Belly-River series evi- 
dently represents the pale, sandy beds which 
occur on the Missouri in a similar position 
with reference to the Pierre; and the latter 
holds coal or lignite at the base in this dis- 
trict, as described by Prof. E. D. Cope on that 
river. In 1881 the lower portion of the Belly- 
River series, characterized by yellowish and 
brownish tints, was found to be highly fossil- 
iferous, and to hold shells like, and in some 
cases conspecific with, those of the Judith- 
River group. In consequence of this fact, some 
doubt was felt in accepting the evidence of the 
apparent stratigraphical position of this por- 
tion of the series ; and a re-examination of the 
district was made with the object of deciding 
this point. The result of this further investiga- 
tion has been, however, to confirm the views 
first held by much additional stratigraphical 
evidence, whichcannot here be detailed, and, 
further, to prove the existence in the upper or 
pale beds of the Belly-River series of a mollus- 
can fauna of the same kind with that charac- 
terizing the yellowish beds above referred to. 
SCIENCE. 
The sections are such that no doubt could at 
any time be entertained with regard to the 
relative positions of the Pierre and the pale 
beds. 
The composition of the cretaceous, here 
found to obtain, is thus brought into exact par- 
allelism with that clearly proved in the Peace 
River country (Report of progress, 1879-80), 
where a similar important estuarine series, 
with Laramie-like fossils, follows the Pierre in 
descending order. The fossils of the Belly- 
River series have not yet been critically exam- 
ined; but their resemblance to those of the 
Judith River is so complete, that I am strongly 
inclined to revert to Messrs. Meek and Hay- 
den’s original views respecting the stratigraph- 
ical position of the latter beds,’ and to suggest, 
though with some hesitation, that the species 
figured on plates 37-39 of Meek’s work on 
the cretaceous and tertiary fossils of the Upper 
Missouri, as from a peculiar local development 
of the Fox-Hill group, have really been derived 
from beds underlying the Pierre. One at least, 
of these fossils (Mytalus subarcuatus) , has been 
found in our district in this position. 
The occurrence, among the paleozoic rocks 
of the portion of the Rocky Mountains be- 
tween the 49th parallel and Bow River, of ex- 
tensive cretaceous areas on both sides of the 
main watershed, is an interesting addition to 
our knowledge of the range, and important 
because of the contained coal-seams, which 
vary in character from bituminous and coking 
coals to anthracite. A coal of the latter class, 
containing eighty-six per cent of fixed carbon, 
was found last summer in the valley of Cas- 
cade River, on the Upper Bow; and mining 
operations have already been commenced on it. 
The trough of cretaceous rocks is here compara- 
tively narrow, and the beds very sharply folded. 
Space will not permit any detailed notice of 
the investigation of the paleozoic rocks of the 
mountains. It may be stated, however, that 
the limestones appear, for the most part, to 
be of Devonian age, and are very variable in 
thickness. One measured section on the Crow- 
Nest Pass showed a thickness of ninety-six 
hundred feet. They are unconformably under- 
lain by a great series of slaty and quartzite 
rocks, from which no fossils have yet been 
obtained in place. On the evidence of de- 
tached fossiliferous fragments, they are, how- 
ever, provisionally referred to the Cambrian, 
and closely resemble, lithologically, those of 
this age in the Grand Cafion of the Colorado. 
GEORGE M. Dawson. 
Geological survey of Canada, Ottawa. 
1 Proc. acad. nat. sc. Philad., 1857, p. 114. 
[Von. IIL, No. 69. 
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