Thickness and Age.

Before concluding the somewhat imperfect sketch of this extensive formation, which has at least a thickness of 25,000 feet, and besides the fossils enumerated, contains only two other small and rather indistinct exuviæ, of which one resembles a tentaculite and a few tracks of anellides, I wish to point out that it is far from my thoughts to say that the whole of this formation is of carboniferous age. It is very possible, and even more than probable, that this huge assemblage of beds, by which it is formed may belong to several distinct periods, ranging from palæozoic to lower mezozoic; but owing to the want of fossils, such as have been found at Reefton (of devonian age), at Richmond in the Province of Nelson, and in the Moonlight range and other localities in Otago (of triassic age), or again in the south-eastern district of Otago (Captain Hutton's Putataka formation), it is impossible to divide this formation in Canterbury for the present at at least, into smaller groups, the more so as such attempts have hitherto only brought confusion into our geology. Nothing remains to be done but to make further detail examinations on a systematic plan, and to follow some of the more characteristic beds as far as they can be traced.