SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOLUME 75. NUMBER 1 CAMBRIAN GEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY V No. 1.—GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS OF BEAVEKFOOT- BRISCO-STANFORD RANGE, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA (With Plates 1 to 8) BY CHARLES D. WALCOTT (Publication 2756) CITY OF WASHINGTON PUBLISHED BY THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION JUNE 28, 1924 BALTIMORE, MD., 0. S. A. 1 CAMBRIAN GEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY V No. I.—GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS OF BEAVERFOOT- BRISCO-STANFORD RANGE, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA By CHARLES D. WALCOTT (With Piatf.s i to 8) CONTENTS PAGE Introduction 3 Description of map, plate i 7 Stratigraphic sections ; 9 Sinclair Canyon Section 9 Silurian 1 Ordovician 14 Ozarkian 16 Upper Cambrian 20 Summary 21 Stoddart-Dry Creek Section 21 Ozarkian 22 Upper Cambrian 24 Summary 24 Sabine Mountain Section 25 Silurian 26 Ozarkian 27 Upper Cambrian 28 Grainger Mountain Section 29 Cambrian 30 Lower Cambrian 30 Beltian 30 Notes on Geological Formations of tbe western side of the Beaverfoot- Brisco-Stanford Range 31 Devonian 31 Silurian 32 Wonah Quartzite 32 Ordovician 32 Glenogle formation 32 Sinclair formation 34 Sarbach ? formation 35 Ozarkian 35 Mons formation 35 Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 75, No. 1. I 2 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 75 PAGE Upper Cambrian 39 Lyell ? 39 Middle and Lower Cambrian 39 Summary - 40 Note on the extension of the pre-Devonian formations of the Beaverfoot- Brisco-Stanford Range north of Kicking Horse Canyon 40 Ordovician-Silurian Boundary 41 Disconformity at the base of the Silurian Beaverfoot formation 43 Variation in thickness of formations 44 Pre-Pleistocene formations of the floor of the Columbia River Valley (" Rocky Mountain Trench ") from Canal Flats to Golden 45 New Formation Names 47 Brisco formation 47 Beaverfoot (redefined) 48 Sabine formation 49 Wonah Quartzite ^9 Sinclair formation 50 Messines formation 50 Pipestone formation 51 ILLUSTRATIONS Plates FACING PLATE PAGE 1. Outline map of portion of Rocky Mountain area in British Columbia. 8 2, fig. I. Beaverfoot formation at Gates of the Canyon 10 2, fig. 2. Gates of the Canyon, Sinclair Canyon 10 3, Outcrop of Red Wall Fault Breccia 10 4, fig. I. Southwest face of Sinclair Mountain 10 4, fig. 2. Boulders in Red Wall Fault Breccia 10 5. Gates of the Canyon fault 10 6. Fault in Mons, Sinclair Canyon 11 7, fig. I. Looking up Stoddart Canyon from the west 20 7, fig. 2. Southwest end of Sabine Mountain 20 8. Western face of Stanford Range 21 Text Figures figure page 1. Allan section of northern part of Beaverfoot Range 4 2. Diagram of Sinclair Canyon Section. 10 3. Silurian graptolites 12 4. Diagram of profile of southwest face of Sabine Mountain 26 5. Outline of west fact of Grainger Mountain 29 6. Osarkispira Ico Walcott, n. sp 38 7. Hungaia billingsi Walcott, n. sp 38 8. Symphysurina woosteri Ulrich, n. sp 38 9. Briscoia sinclaircnsis Walcott, n. sp 38 10. Plicated shales and limestones of Mons formation in Canyon Creek Canyon 46 11. Same as figure 10, a little lower down the creek 46 NO. I FORMATIONS OF BEAVERFOOT-BRISCO-STANFORD RANGE 3 INTRODUCTION Late in the field season of 1922, 1 made a rapid reconnaissance along Sinclair Canyon from the Pass at its head on the crest of the Brisco- Stanford Range to the mouth of the canyon where it opens out on the east side of the Columbia River Valley, and during the field season of 1923 I studied more in detail the Sinclair section, and to the south the Stoddart-Dry Creek, the Fairmount and Canal Flats sections of the Stanford Range, and to the north the Vermilion and Harrogate sections of the Brisco Range, and the Kicking Horse Canyon section at the northern end of the Beaverfoot Range. I was accompanied by Dr. Edwin Kirk, of the United States Geological Survey, who studied the Upper Ordovician and Silurian formations, and Mrs. Walcott, who collected many Ozarkian and Cambrian fossils. The three ranges grouped in the title are practically one continuous range on the eastern side of the Columbia River Valley that were given local names by the early settlers and surveyors. They are all more or less capped by the upturned hard, silicious, magnesian Silurian limestones that have resisted the agencies of erosion and now form high clifir's, sharp ridges and peaks, while the more readily disintegrated shales and thin-bedded limestones of the Ordovician, Ozarkian and Cambrian beneath have been deeply eroded since the close of Jurassic time.' On the west the great " Rocky Mountain Trench " developed, and on the east the deep valley of the Kootenay- Beaverfoot Rivers. Nearly all of the Devonian limestones and shales and Carboniferous limestones of pre-Jurassic time that may have been superjacent to the Silurian over the area between the Rocky Mountain Continental Divide and the Selkirk Mountains in British Columbia south of the main line of the Canadian Pacific Railway have disappeared in the millions of years since they were first sub- jected to erosion." For many years I wished to know more of the formations of the western ridges of the main range of the Rocky Mountains facing the Columbia River Valley, and I was delighted when the papers of Allan,' Schofield,^ and Shepard " appeared with a more or less detailed ^ Schofield, Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada, 3d Ser., Vol. 14, Sec. IV, 1921, pp. 90-97. ^ In this connection the student should read Prof. S. J. Schofield's admirable paper on the " Origin of the Rocky Mountain Trench," loc. cit., pp. 61-97. ' Allan, John A., Report Can. Geol. Surv. for 1912, Memoir Geol. Surv. Canada, No. 55, 1914, Geol. Ser. No. 46, pp. 94-102. ' IV, Schofield, Stuart J., Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada, 3d Ser., Vol. 14, Sec. 1920, pp. 61-86; Geol. Surv. Canada. Bull. 35, 1922, Geol. Ser. No. 42, pp. 1-15. ® Shepard, Francis P., Jour. Geol, Vol. 30, pp. 77-8i, 89-99, 361-376. SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS- VOL. 75 account of the stratigraphy and structure of the Lower Paleozoic formations in and adjoining the " Rocky Mountain Trench." The stratigraphic section of Al'.an, south of the Kicking Horse Canyon on the line of the Canadian Pacific Railway, crossed the Beaver- foot Range a few miles south of Golden, where he found Ordovi- cian and Silurian ^ formations near the summit of the range overlook- ing the " Rocky Mountain Trench." The Silurian was identified by con- tained corals, and the Ordovician by the Glenogle graptolites. A dia- grammatic section by Allan shows the complicated structure of the northern portion of the Beaverfoot Range. It is reproduced in outline in figure i. Schofield working to the south found Lower and Middle Cambrian and Devonian in the Elko district, and on the* eastern side of the Trench at Canal Flats supposed Middle and Tapper Cambrian over- lain by Devonian.^ Shepard in connection with his study of the " Rocky Mountain Trench " examined several sections of the Beaverfoot-Brisco-Stanford Range on the western side and eastern wall of the Trench, and sum- marized his observations on the stratigraphic series as follows : ' Loc. cit., p. 60 of Memoir ; also Geol. Surv. Canada, 1913, Geol. Excursions Int. Geol. Congress, C. i. Guide Book No. 8, pt. II. Colored structural section in pocket. ' Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada, 3d Ser., Vol. 14, Sec. IV, 1920, p. 76; also Geol. jQAiy eiqti/n/oj Surv. Canada, Geol. Ser. No. 42, Bull. 35, 1922, p. 15. : .. NO. I FORMATIONS OF BEAVERFOOT-BRISCO-STANFORD RANGE GENERALIZED SHEPARD SECTION OF Feet Meters Mississippian ] Massive limestone i,ooo+ 304-8 -|- rThin-bedded limestone and shale. 500 152.4 Devonian (Upper) . .^ Quartzite 500+ 152.4 [Massive limestone 2,500+ 762. Calcereous shales 900 + 274.3 Massive crystalline limestone 600 182.8 Silurian or Devonian. Boulder bed 300 " 91-4 Massive gray limestone 650 198.1 /Massive gray and black limestone. 2,200 670.5 Riclimond, Upper t Sandstone and quartzite 400 121.9 Richmond, Lower j Massive limestone 950 289.5 Ordovician (Lowest) . limestones and shales. 1,600+ 487-6 j Thin-bedded and thin-bedded limestone. 1,000+ 304.8 Cambrian (Upper), Shales Massive pink weathered limestone. 1,000+ 304.8 Cambrian (Upper f Thin-bedded Hmestone 1,500 457-2 or Middle). tMassive gray and black limestone.. 500 152.4 Cambrian and Pre- /Conglomerates, sandstones, shales Cambrian. 1 and schists 5-000 + 1,524. This section locates the " Siluriah or Devonian," and beneath them the Upper and Lower Richmond, Lowest Ordovician, and Upper Cambrian.^ The formations inckided in this paper may be compared to those of the Shepard section as follows SHEPARD SECTION Brisco = Upper Richmond, also boulder bed of "Silurian or Devonian." Beaverfoot = Lower Richmond, also massive pink weathering limestone of Upper Cambrian. Wonah Quartzite = Base of Upper Richmond. Sinclair = ^ Mons = Ordovician (Lowest), also shales and thin-bedded limestone of Upper Cambrian. Lyell = Massive gray limestone of Silurian or Devonian. Much in the Shepard section is necessarily theoretical, as he did not attempt to work out any one section thoroughly. He made a broad reconnaissance and added materially to the information in *Jour. Geol., Vol. XXX, 1922, p. 364. ^ Shepard apparently did not meet with the shales and sandstones of the Ordo- vician Sinclair formation carrying graptolites of the Beekmantown fauna. The formation is finely exposed in a number of places in the Stanford Range. 6 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 75 relation to the geology of the " Rocky Mountain Trench " from Golden to Canal Flats. L. D. Burling (1922) in a paper " On a Cambro-Ordovician section in the Beaverfoot Range near Golden, British Columbia " * "' offers new data regarding the stratigraphy of the upper part of the Cam- brian and the Ordovician section." Two new formation names are proposed, Glenogle shales for the graptolite shales, and Beaverfoot formation for the Halysite beds.