76

black, chert pebbles up to 2 inches in diameter embedded in a black,
argillaceous cement. The conglomerate fills small channels and depressions
in the underlying Gething sandstone, indicating an interval of erosion
before deposition of the Moosebar”’. In the upper part of the Moosebar
shale on Johnson Creek, Beach and Spivak collected Beudanticeras sp.
about 3 mile above the junction with Coalbed Creek, and Lemuroceras?
sp. below the junction with the same creek.

A few marine fossils, including Lemuroceras irenense from near the top
of the formation, have been found west of Steamboat Island in the canyon
(See Figure 11). They are from the 800-foot section of the Moosebar
measured by McLearn in 1918.

It is not known how far north of Peace River Valley the Moosebar
preserves its entity as a formation. Shales of equivalent age have been
observed, however, east of Butler Ridge; they include 1,000 feet or more of
shale and sandstone penetrated in bore-holes on Farrell Creek; beds on a
creek north of Chinaman Lake, with Beudanticeras affine Whiteaves; and
fossiliferous beds on the upper part of Lynx Creek, recorded by Beach and
Spivak. Conglomerate lies between the Moosebar and Gething formations
in this area east of Butler Ridge. Dresser (1922) described conglomerate at
the base of the section penetrated by wells on Farrell Creek, and Beach and
Spivak measured 35 feet of conglomerate on Ruddy Creek. Marine fossils
and lack of any evidence of non-marine deposition show that the Moosebar
formation is of marine origin.

McLearn’s estimate of 800 feet for the thickness of this formation is
probably low. Beach and Spivak believe that the correct figure is more
nearly 1,000 to 1,200 feet.

Gates Formation

The Gates overlies the Moosebar formation in Peace River Canyon
and in Peace River Valley at least as far east as ‘The Gates’ and possibly
far out on the Plains. It consists of from 245 to more than 400 feet of
marine, massive, partly crossbedded, thick beds of sandstone and some
thick beds of shale. The type locality is at ‘The Gates’ on Peace River.

The Gates formation was first called the middle sandstone member of
the St. John formation (McLearn, 1918) and later given its present name
(McLearn, 1923). Only the upper part of the formation may outcrop at
‘The Gates’ (See Plate VII A). At this locality, crossbedded sandstones
with fossil stem and wood impressions form steep-sided islands and low
cliffs. Marine shells have been found by a geologist of an oil company in
sandstone at this locality, including Astarte portana in place and
Beudanticeras? in talus.

West of Hudson Hope, sandstones of the Gates formation outcrop in
the steep walls of small islands and in cliffs on the banks of Peace River.
Beach and Spivak (1944) state that the formation here consists of two
sandstones, each 75 to 100 feet thick, separated by about 200 feet of shale.
In the shale between the two sandstones Lemuroceras? and other marine
shells have been collected.

_ Still farther west, in the lower part of Peace River Canyon, the Gates
disappears below river level, so that at the mouth of Starfish Creek only the
overlying shales of the Hasler formation outcrop. However, not much