33

Williams and Bocock (1932) record species of Seminula, Camarotoechia,
Spirifer, Chonetes, Zaphrentis, M enophyllum, Diphyphyllum, bryozoa, and
erinoid columns from the above section.

PENNSYLVANIAN OR PERMIAN
Alaska Highway

Near miles 381 and 382, Alaska Highway, an exposure of 200 to 300
feet of black, hackly chert, weathering grey or brown, is described by
Williams. Its contact with the underlying Mississippian beds is said to be
abrupt, and the relationship disconformable. The upper contact is missing,
and no higher Palaeozoic beds are known on the highway. ‘The beds are
unfossiliferous, but Williams notes that similar chert beds are present in
the upper part of the Rocky Mountain quartzite in Jasper Park.

‘ These beds were included by Laudon and Chronic in the upper part of
their Mississippian ‘Kindle’ formation. They were described as thin-
bedded, grey, silty limestones with thin shale partings, having the appea-
rance of chert on weathered surfaces (See also page 32).

CARBONIFEROUS(?) AND PERMIAN
Mount Merrill

On Mount Merrill', 38 miles above the mouth of Beaver River (See
Plate III A), a tributary of the Liard, a section of late Paleozoic rocks
described by Kindle (1944) is as follows, in descending order:

Thickness
Feet
Sandstonescalcareous:s. cco retention eee oe 30
Chert, massive, roughly laminated, 1 foot to 10 feet thick, separ-
ated by layers of shale, 1 inch to 3 inches thick............ 150+
Sandstone, grey to yellow, with some shaly beds and some lime-

Several collections from the lower, grey to yellow sandstones were
identified and dated Permian, or possibly Upper Carboniferous, by Alice E.
Wilson. One collection, taken at 420 feet above the river, contains Pustula
sp., Dictyoclostus sp., Letorhynchus sp., Athyris sp., and Dielasma, and was
said to be of “Upper Carboniferous or Permian age, probably Permian’’
by Miss Wilson. A second collection, from the grey to yellow sandstones,
collected 280 feet higher up the slope, includes Buxtonia sp., Allorisma
sp., and Aviculopecten sp., and was dated, probably Permian. Another
collection from the same sandstones 200 feet vertically below the peak of
Merrill Mountain, includes Echinoconchus sp., Pugnoides sp., D1elasma
sp., and Martiniopsis sp. A fourth collection from these sandstones, near
the last locality, yielded Productus sp., close to P. uralicus Tschernyschew,
Marginifera sp., close to M. jiswensis Chao, and other fossils, and was
considered by Miss Wilson to be ‘‘almost certainly of Permian age’’.

The calcareous sandstone, above the chert, has yielded bryozoa,
Productus sp. close to P. uralicus, Spirifer sp., Marginifera sp. close to
M. jisuensis, and cf. Sphenotus sp. ‘This collection is similar to one from
the lower sandstones, below the chert, and like it has been dated almost
certainly Permian by Alice E. Wilson.

1 Mount Merrill is north of the map-area, east of Beavercrow Mountain.