Mesozoic and Cenozoic Geology and Paleontology. 117 
Lake, and thence to the Finlay Rapids, on Peace river, the country, 
with some exceptions, is more or less overspread with drift material ; 
much of this has been derived from the abrasion of the Tertiary for- 
mations, through which many of the principal valleys of the country 
have been cut, exposing alternating beds of clay, lignite, sand and 
rounded gravel, capped by vast sheets of volcanic products, chiefly 
porous and compact lavas—columnar and concretionary—and dense 
dolerite, forming high hills or undulating stony table-lands, such as 
that which is crossed by the wagon road between Clinton and Bridge 
creek, at an elevation of 4,000 or 5,000 feet. From Mr. Horetzky’s 
description of the abrupt character of the country on the Susqua 
river, and in the vicinity of Fort Stager on the Skeena, these Tertiary 
volcanic products are supposed to be extensively developed in that 
region. The lignite-Tertiary strata which are assumed to have pre- 
ceded the latest of these volcanic outbursts, occupy undefined, but ex- 
tensive areas between Fort George and McLeod’s lake ; and probably 
continue thence to the valley of Nation river, with only such. interrup- 
tions as are the result, partly, of the original unevenness of the sur- 
face upon which they were laid down, and partly of the subsequent de- 
nuding agencies to which they have been subjected, giving rise to out- 
croppings of the older rocks, either as hills or ridges rising above the 
general level of the country, or appearing as rocky bars or canons in 
the deep-cut channels of the rivers. The general similarity of some of 
the sands and gravels of the drift period to those of Tertiary age, 
makes it difficult, without close and critical examination of each ex- 
posure, to determine to which period they should be referred, and the 
distribution of the drift upon the Tertiary deposits is so irregular as to 
make it quite impracticable to define their respective limits. 
At about three miles below Nation river, a steep cliff rises on the 
right bank of Parsnip river, from the water’s edge to 70 or 80 feet. 
At the base, stiff blue clays are seen, and these are overlaid by layers 
of sand and fine gravel, passing at the top into coarse rounded gravel. 
This is, probably, near the northern limit of the Parsnip river lgnite- 
Tertiary basin, as a short distance further a rocky ridge crosses the 
river and crops out in both banks, the country then rising rapidly, on 
one side to the Rocky mountains, and on the other to the watershed 
between the Omineca and the Parsnip vivers. On the eastern side of 
the mountains there do not appear to be any deposits which can be re- 
ferred with certainity to the lignite-Tertiary series. At intervals along 
the river, on both sides, deposits of stratified sand and gravel, cut into 
