The Devonian System i?i Canada. — WJiiteaves. 235 
It has long- been known that the eastern ranges of the 
Rocky mountains in Alberta are mainly composed of Carboni- 
ferous or Devonian, or perhaps of Carboniferous and Devon- 
ian, limestones and shales. These rocks were examined in 
1858 and 1859 by Sir James Hector, who writes as follows in 
regard to them. 
"These limestones are of dark and light blue colour, crystalline, com- 
pact or cherty, with fossils that are either of Carboniferous or Devonian 
age, the principal of which are Spirifer, Orthis, Chonetes, Conularia, 
Lonsdalsa, Cyathophylluvi, Lithostrotion, etc.'' "Along" with ihem 
are softer beds of gritty, sandy shale, generally of a dull red or purple 
colour."*. ."In the second range we have the same limestones and shales 
repeated as in the first, but at the base I observed traces of a magnesian 
limestone of a buff colour, containing Atrypa reticiilaris, a true Devonian 
fossil."!. ."On the Kicking Horse river, in the third range, we have the 
mountains again formed of blue limestone, along with a compact blue 
schist with red bands, giving a curious striped aspect to the rocks. "J 
"In reference to these remarks, Dr. G. M. Dawson, who 
made a geological examination of the South Kootanie pass 
and its vicinity, in 1874, adds the following comments : 
"Dr. Hector is not very clear as to the separation of the supposed De- 
vonian and Carboniferous limestones, and they may indeed very probably 
belong to a single series." "Prof. Meek, in describing fossils from lime- 
stones occuring in the mountains south of the boundary line, which, from 
the general facies, he believed to be Carboniferous, mentions the fact 
that the forms, without exception, belong to genera which are common 
both to that formation and the Devonian, and of which a small number 
are represented in the Silurian. "§ 
In 1881, 1883 and 1884 Dr. Dawson was engaged in an ex- 
amination of the geological structure of parts of the Rocky 
mountains in Alberta between Lat. 49° and Lat. 51° 30', the 
results of which were published in the "Annual Report of the 
Geological Survey of Canada" for 1885 (Vol. I, New Series). 
This report contains preliminary lists of a few supposed De- 
vonian fossils, from the limestones on the summit of the North 
Kootanie pass, on Crow Nest lake, and from the lowest beds 
*Palliser's Explorations in British North America, 1863, p. 239. 
tQuarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. XVH 
(1861), p. 443. 
JPalliser's Explorations in British America p. 239. 
t5"Report on the Geology and Resources of the I^egion in the \'icinity 
i^{ the Forty-ninth Parallel," etc., 1875, p. 71, 
