The sections of the Bearpaw shale herewith presented were prepared from a study of cuttings from many shallow test-holes and three deep wells, located within an area extending from T. 11 to T. 21 and from R. 18 to R. 23, W. of 4th Mer., in southern Alberta.

In this area, the base of the Bearpaw shale is limited below by the coal measures at the top of the Pale beds, and at the top by the massive Fox Hills sandstone. The formation is 740 feet thick in the southern part of the area, but this thickness decreases northeastward 230 feet in 65 miles.

The Bearpaw shale consists of three lithologic units. The lower shale member contains bentonite beds, but no sand. The middle sandstone member is generally a fine-grained massive sandstone useful for correlation. The upper sandy member contains sandy shale and erratic sandstone lenses which ordinarily can not be correlated between adjacent wells.