80

of Browns Creek. The formation also underlies a triangular area north of
Falls Mountain. North of Pine River it outcrops from Submarine
Mountain westward to nearly opposite the mouth of Browns Creek. It
also outcrops on Commotion, Walton, Hulcross, and Alvin Creeks
(Wickenden and Shaw, 1948).

In spite of the fairly large area of outcrop, no completely exposed
section of the formation is known. The lower part, including the contact
with the underlying Commotion formation, is exposed on the east bank of
Commotion Creek, about 3 mile above the falls. There the rocks show a
transition from light and medium grey sandstone upward to dark grey,
non-calcareous shale. The lower part of the shale includes a bed about 6
inches thick of chert-pebble conglomerate. A short distance downstream
from this exposure, a heavy band of hard, dense sandstone is regarded as
the top of the Commotion formation (Wickenden and Shaw, 1943). The
upper part of the Hasler formation is well exposed on the east bank of
Hasler Creek, 3 miles south of Pine River, and the section, in descending
order, is as follows: 4

Thickness

Goodrich formation Feet

Sandstone, conglomeratic...................-- posopoooweceoe 3
Shale, dark grey; with thin beds of fine-grained sandstone,
becoming more numerous near the top.............0..08%

Motalhthicknessaepastraeyrral eee cece 370

A few worm trails or burrows and fish scales have been observed in this
formation (Wickenden and Shaw, 1943).

In the Peace River Foothills, the Hasler formation has been recog-
nized by Beach and Spivak (1944). In the lower part of Peace River
Canyon, at the mouth of Starfish Creek (See Figure 11) and exposed on
both sides of the canyon, are ‘‘700 feet . . . of fine, dark grey, thin-bedded,
marine shales with thin, interbedded, sandstone members. About 600 feet
above the base, some shaly sandstone beds contain the Gastroplites am-
monoid fauna’ (Beach and Spivak, 1944). From talus at this locality
McLearn (1944B, 1945) has illustrated the following species: Lopidiaster
silentiensis, L. ef. silentiensis, Inoceramus altifluminis, and Gastroplites
kingt. Near the top of the formation on Burnt Trail Creek, Beach and
Spivak measured 200 feet of shale, siltstone, and thin-bedded, grey
weathering sandstone.

Shales exposed in cliffs along Peace River below ‘The Gates’ are
probably of the Hasler formation. Here, 1 mile below and on the north
bank of the river, the geologist of an oil company collected Gastroplites
canadensis var. and Inoceramus cadottensis. He also collected Gastroplites
on Maurice Creek, south of Hudson Hope. No details are available.
If, however, on Maurice Creek, this diagnostic genus occurs in shale, it is
probably in the Hasler; if in sandstone, from the Commotion formation.
If in the Commotion, it must be inferred that this formation here extends
north to Peace River Valley. As already stated, however, the shorter
ranging Gates formation mostly supplants the Commotion from south to
north, that is, from the Pine to Peace River Valley.