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CHAPTER I.
SUMMARY.
SUMMARY OF PREVIOUS GEOLOGICAL WORK.

RICHARDSON’S REPORT.

In 1872, James Richardson made an examination of the
shores of portions of Skidegate inlet, and investigated the coal
seams then exposed in tunnels at Cowgitz in the western part of
that inlet. His report! contains the first information in regard
to the geology of Graham island.

Richardson divided the Cretaceous rocks of Skidegate
inlet into three general divisions, which, under different names,
have been adhered to by all subsequent investigators. His
division follows:

(1) Upper shales and sandstones.
(2) Coarse conglomerates.
(3) Lower shales with coal and iron ore.

Richardson’s description of the coal seams of Cowgitz
remains to this day the only authentic information about that
locality, as the openings were obscured soon after his visit and
are now almost completely obliterated. He considered that the
coal was near the base of the measures, failing to recognize the
faulting at Cowgitz. He does not clearly state whether the
volcanic rocks overlie or underlie the coal measures. He evi-
dently considered all the sedimentary rocks of Skidegate inlet
to be Cretaceous, and this confusion of lower Jurassic argillites
with Upper Cretaceous slaty shales, which was not detected by
Dawson in 1878, caused uncertainty in regard to the age of the
Queen Charlotte series until the present investigation was made.
Richardson’s ‘‘Number Two Coal Mine,’’ for instance, occurs
in lower Jurassic argillites, and not in Cretaceous rocks. Prob-
ably a carbonaceous layer in the argillites was mistaken for a
weathered coal seam, a mistake that might easily be made.

1 Richardson, James, Geol. Surv., Can., Rept. of Prog., 1872-73, pp. 56-63 and
Appendices.