a es Wibilla A SF eC aT OD Te RARE SO See re Sea i aera eta pale - ener Oe OFT A i peane se eee S op (Se fornia Sate minis res a wre exes ee ee IS NTS PS eae TON = Nh SSE a te a Cisse a ma oo 80 of the rocks of the Bow River series and partly of the schists of the still older Shuswap series, all dipping to the southwest. The latter overlie the former, but the cause of their superior position was not ascertained.” Section on Liard River The following section along Liard river, from Dease river to the Mackenzie, is taken from McConnell’s report of his traverse made in 1887.2 Three miles below the mouth of Dease river there is an exposure of soft, dark shales associated: with friable shales and conglomerates probably of Tertiary age, and on a small island at the mouth of Hyland river there is an exposure of hard, whitish sandstone passing into quartzite and dipping northeast at an angle of 50 degrees. Six miles farther down, unconsolidated sands, ‘sandy cae and gravels holding small beds of impure lignite are exposed in a cut ank. “The rocks in the Little canyon consist of dark and sometimes cleaved shales, holding large, flattened ironstone nodules, hard sandstones and quartzites, and some beds of fine-grained, hard, siliceous conglomerate. They are closely folded together and strike north 35 degrees west. No fossils were found in any of these beds, nor any definite evidence of their age obtained beyond the fact that the shales have a close lithological resemblance, both in appearance and composition, to those on Dease river, from which Dr. Dawson obtained graptolites of Utica-Trenton age.” : A few miles below Little canyon the shales, sandstones, and conglomerates are replaced by shaly limestone... This is succeeded lower down the river by more massive varieties of limestone. Still lower down a range of hills extends in an irregular manner for some miles along the left bank of the river and rises to an altitude of 1,500 feet above the river, or 1,000 feet above the general plateau level. “The limestone of which the hills are formed is usually greyish in colour and rather compact, but passes in many places into a whitish, highly crystalline variety without distinct bedding. It has a general strike of north 15 degrees west. It is destitute of determinable fossils, but holds frag- ments-of crinoid stems, and traces of brachiopods and trilobites.” Limestone outcrops are seen along the river to within a few miles of the mouth of Turnagain river. These limestones are often coarsely crystalline and cut by white calcite veins. “Other varieties show wavy lines projecting from weathered surfaces due to alternating magnesian and calcareous layers, and closely resemble in this respect the limestones of the Castle Mountain group as developed along the Bow River pass. In some places the limestone becomes shaly and impure, and is altered into an imperfectly developed schist.” The limestone is replaced several miles above Turnagain river by shales, sandstones, and conglomerates, that are exposed at many points as far as Whirl- pool canyon, above Coal river. These rocks resemble those of Little canyon and are evidently of the same age. The shales are dark and finely laminated and are interstratified in places with the sandstones. The latter are lighter coloured than the former, are hard, and often pass into quartzite. The conglomerates are very fine-grained and consist principally of white, well-rounded, quartz pebbles, em- bedded in a siliceous matrix. Resting unconformably upon these beds at Cranberry rapids, a few miles above the mouth of Turnagain river, there is an exposure of soft shales and conglomerates, evidently of Tertiary age. 4Geol. Surv., Can., Ann. Rept., vol. IV, pp. 33-58 D.