36

Age and Correlation
(See Figure 5)

Fossils are rare in the Grayling formation, but Kindle collected cf.
Claraia stachei Bittner on Grayling River, a mile north of the Liard. The
specimens are imperfect, but are probably of, or close to, this species.
Claraia stachei in Greenland ranges through both the Otoceratan and
Gyronitan, the first two ages of early Lower Triassic time in the chronologi-
cal nomenclature of Spath (1934).

Warren (1945) records the presence of Claraia stachei in the lower part
of the Sulphur Mountain member of the Spray River formation in the
central Canadian Rockies.

In Nevada, Claraia stachei occurs about 150 feet above the base of
the Candelaria formation (Muller and Ferguson, 1939). This species is
also recorded in the Woodside formation in southeastern Idaho and in the
Dinwoody of Wyoming (Newell and Kummel, 1941).

TOAD FORMATION
Definition

The Toad formation, named and described by Kindle in 1944 and
redefined by him in 1946, consists of marine, dark grey, brown, or black,
platy shales; dark, shaly, thin-bedded, calcareous siltstones; some hard,
massive siltstones; and thin, lenticular layers of dark limestone. The
thickness varies from 800 to 1,800 feet, and the type locality is on Liard and
Toad Rivers, near the mouth of the Toad (See Figure 4).

The Toad is conformable with the underlying Grayling formation, and
in most places conformable with the overlying Liard formation or with
the ‘Flagstones’. Locally, where a fine sediment is overlain by a coarse
sediment, minor disconformities have been observed.

Halfway River Valley

The Toad formation has been definitely located at one place in Halfway
River Valley, namely, in the Fourth Gully on Mount Wright (See Plate
III B). It is overlain, conformably, by the ‘Flagstones’. The formation
consists of shaly, calcareous siltstones. Poor fossil specimens, identified
as Beyrichites or Gymnotoceras, record the fauna of the upper part of the
Toad formation. It is quite probable that this formation will be recognized
in other parts of Halfway Valley.

If the beds of this formation extend south as far as the Peace River
Foothills, they are deeply buried there beneath Triassic formations of
later age.

Sikanni Chief River Valley

The Toad formation outcrops in Sikanni Chief Valley, and is best
known on the west slope of Mount Hage (See Plate IV A), where it is
exposed on Hage and McTaggart Creeks (See Figure 6). The lowest beds
are far up Mc Taggart Creek, and the highest are on Hage Creek, above
the junction of these two creeks, where they are overlain by the ‘Flag-
stones’. In this section are dark, somewhat shaly, calcareous siltstones with
some harder and more massive layers of calcarcous siltstones and some dark