81 
“passage beds” should be assigned to the Kootenay or the Fernie. The 
name Blairmore has been given to the succeeding strata, which, like those 
of the Kootenay, include sandstones and dark shales, but also conglomerates; 
greenish and reddish shales, have, at least locally, no coal seams, and are 
separated from the underlying Kootenay beds by a persistent basal con- 
glomerate, which, in places, is in slight erosional unconformity with the 
underlying Kootenay. The name Crowsnest has been given to an over- 
lying discontinuous deposit of volcanic tuff and agglomerate. The name 
Colorado has been applied to the succeeding marine shales, arenaceous in 
places and at some horizons. The name Allison has been given to the 
sandstones and shales at the top of the Mesozoic column in the southern 
foothills. 
The name Kootenay is used as restricted by Leach and as a formation 
name. Compared with the original use of Dawson it is restricted in its 
downward range, and perhaps a little in its upward range. As originally 
proposed in a paper by J. W. Dawson 1 , to which G. M. Dawson contri- 
buted some notes, it included the lower part of the Mesozoic section in the 
region in the vicinity of Bow river and south to the International Bound- 
ary. It was defined largely by its flora, of which a number of species were 
described. In addition to the flora of the Kootenay series the flora of an 
Intermediate series and of a Mill Creek series were described. The plants 
of the Intermediate series came from a locality on the middle branch of 
Oldman river and the plants of the Mill Creek series from a locality on 
Mill creek and from a locality on the middle branch of the Oldman. The 
Intermediate flora contains a few angiosperms and the Mill Creek flora at 
both localities a number of angiosperms. On the Oldman the Mill Creek 
flora is said to be well down in the section below the volcanic beds and the 
Intermediate flora is said to occur much farther down. In the same year, 
G. M. Dawson 2 described the Kootenay series and his description may be 
taken jointly with that of J. W. Dawson as a definition of Kootenay. He 
defines it in terms of its flora and of its relation to higher strata. He 
includes the beds now referred to the Fernie, for he lists Belemnites among 
the fossils of the Kootenay. The difficulty of defining the upper limit is 
expressed, but it is considered to lie somewhere between the coal-bearing 
and the volcanic zones, the lower Kootenay including all strata to the coal 
zone and the upper Kootenay an undefined range above. His reason for 
not drawing the upper limit at the volcanic horizon is that the beds below 
it on the middle branch of the Oldman cannot be included in it, for they 
contain a flora, the Mill Creek flora, which differs from the flora of the 
Kootenay. It, therefore, seems clear from the descriptions of both J. W. 
and G. M. Dawson that they did not intend including the strata con- 
taining the Intermediate and Mill Creek floras in the Kootenay and the 
upper limit of the Kootenay must be drawn somewhere below the horizon 
of their occurrence. Now the localities on the Oldman containing these 
floras have not been studied in recent years and no collections of the Inter- 
mediate and Mill Creek (of the Oldman) floras are available for study, but as 
these floras contain angiosperms and they occur below the volcanic beds, 
they are likely in beds now referred to the Blairmore. If both the Mill Creek 
(of Oldman) and Intermediate floras are upper Blairmore floras, to meet 
1 Trans. Roy. Soc., Canada, vol. 3, boo. IV, pp. 1-22 (1886). 
* Geol. Surv., Canada, Ann. Rept., N.S., vol. 1, pt. B, pp. 162-167 (1886). 
