The Age and Affinities of the Tertiary Flora of Western Canada

Abstract

In 1922 I prepared an account of fossil plants from various localities in British Columbia and Saskatchewan for the Geological Survey of Canada.Publication of this report has been delayed, and it seems desirable to re- cord certain of its more important conclusions without going into the de- tails upon which these rest.These conclusions relate to the age, affinities, and environment indicated.Beginning with the work of Oswald Heer in 1868 on fossil plants brought back from the mouth of the Mackensie River by Richardson and those collected in Alaska by Russian explorers, these floras were regarded as Miocene in age, and Heer's opinion was followed by Sir William Dawson and Professor Penhallow-the two subsequent contributors to our knowl- edge of the fossil floras of western Canada.Meanwhile, with the trans- fer of Alaska to American sovereignty and its active exploration by the United States Geological Survey, large collections of fossil plants were accumulated in Washington, largely from what came to be known as the Kenai formation.These have been studied for the most-part by Knowlton and Hollick, although the final report of them has not yet been published.Of late years it has been rather generally recognized that these so-called Kenai floras, as well as Heer's Arctic Miocene, widely distributed in the Arctic Archipelago, was much older than Miocene, and was really upper Eocene or Oligocene in age, or possibly represented both of these horizons.The proof of this is ample and need not be repeated in the present connec- tion.The present study is in entire harmony with this conclusion, since none of the Tertiary which I studied is as young as Miocene, and it all fits our present conceptions of a late Eocene flora.Only a single qualification of this statement is necessary.Two different floral horizons, separated by some 4000 feet of strata, are recognizable, and it may be possible that both late Eocene and Oligocene are represented by plants in western Canada.The impossibility of reaching a decision at the

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