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Geology of the Provinces of Canterbury and Westland, New Zealand : a report comprising the results of official explorations

Chapter IX

page 291

Chapter IX.

The Waipara Formation.

In the preceding notes on the "General Geological Structure of the Province," I have already given some details on the origin of this important formation, which although not of great horizontal extent, is nevertheless of considerable interest, both from a scientific and economic point of view. It was named the Waipara formation in 1866 by Professor von Hochstetter, the valley of that river being the principal locality in which the remains of numerous huge saurians were found, and placed by him at the same time in the Jurassic group. However, when examining these beds more closely in the Waipara and Malvern Hills districts, and collecting their numerous fossil contents, I found that the impressions of plants in the lowest series consisted of dicotyledonous leaves, of which the following species are well represented:— Fagus ninnisiana, Phyllites eucalyptroides, Loranthophyllum dubium, Griselinia myrtifolium, and several others described by Unger from specimens collected by von Hochstetter in Auckland and Nelson, and considered by both authorities as indicating a true tertiary age. I also obtained remains of some conifers, amongst them the impression of a large araucarian cone and twigs, belonging without doubt to that division of pines which at present are still inhabitants of Australia, besides leaves and twigs of a dammara, resembling in many respects the kauri of the Northern islands. On the West Coast, on the other hand, although most of the plant impressions are dicotyledonous leaves, many of them are different from those found on the page 292East Coast; moreover, besides a small number of ferns (one of them a Pecopteris), there are numerous remains of Gymnogens and Endogens, which I have not found at Shag Point or in the Malvern Hills. However, when examining the whole series side by side, there is no doubt that a good many species of plants are common to all three localities, and that climate, soil, and altitude may easily account for the peculiarities of the flora in each district.

Now in regard to the fossil molluscs, both from the Waipara and the Malvern Hills, where the formation under review is most largely represented, it is true that a number of them are of the same species as in the Amuri district; but, as I have already pointed out in my previous reports, there has hitherto not been the least sign of the occurrence of belemnites, so frequent in the latter locality; and as all the other shells, with scarcely any exception, are still represented in the marine fauna living at present near the coast of New Zealand and Australia, I assigned to them, notwithstanding the presence of the saurian remains, an eocene tertiary age. However, as Dr Hector's researches have established the fact that all the principal genera and species of saurians found at the Amuri Bluff occur also at the Waipara, I have included for some years past the Waipara and Malvern. Hill beds in his cretaceo-tertiary formation, leaving it to further research, and to a careful examination of the fossils collected in those localities by a competent palssologist to settle this question finally.*

* One of my scientific friends in Australia informs me that true belemnites have been found there in tertiary strata, hitherto considered as being of Miocene age; but I think [unclear: f] confirmation is wanted before such an important occurrence can be accepted as a well-established.

Extent.

This formation, with the exception of a few inland basins, skirts only the foot of the Southern Alps on both sides. On the eastern side it is most largely developed south of the Hurunui. It forms part of the higher coast ranges stretching from the River Blyth to the Waipara; more inland it reaches from near the sources of the Glenmark Creek several miles across the middle Waipara to the northern foot of Mount Grey, and in the upper course of that river it is also well developed. It also occurs at the foot of the ranges where the Okuku and Gari rivers (tributaries of the Ashiey) enter (the plains. page 293Another important zone forms the eastern portion of the Malvern Hills, in which more to the west a few isolated basins belonging to it have been preserved, for instance, in the upper course of the Wekaepa, or Selwyn proper, and on the bants of the Kowai, a tributary of the Waimakariri river. Important isolated basins are situated north-west of the Thirteen-Mile Bush range, at the head of Macfarlane's stream, and north-west of Mount Torlesse in the Broken River basin. Although there are a few localities south of the gorge of the Rakaia which, judging from the impression of leaves, might be referred to this formation, (as, for instance, some beds of shales on the southern banks of the upper Kakahu and some small outliers with seams of brown coal between the Opihi and Opuha), I have thought it more convenient not to separate these outliers from the next formation, by which they appear to be overlaid conformably. On the West Coast we can include the Grey Coal Measures as far as the Cobden limestone, and a portion of which crosses into Westland, with the Waipara formation. There is also a small outlier at the Kanieri, containing seams of coal of inconsiderable thickness, which has to be classed with it.For a great distance along the coast all rocks belonging to this formation are hidden below morainic accumulations till we approach the Paringa river, where several miles north of its estuary it is again largely developed, forming a strip several miles broad, and reaching to the Waita river. After a considerable interval we meet it again at Jackson's Bay, whence we can follow it to the southern boundary of the Province, always exhibiting the characteristic feature of littoral deposits.

Sequence and Character of Rocks, Position of Strata, Fossil Contents.

I have already stated that the last formation, consisting almost exclusively of igneous rocks of submarine origin was in its turn uplifted and brought within the influence of marine and sub-ærial action, so that the strata composing it were not only greatly destroyed, and their outlines considerably changed, but also beds of conglomerate, often of enormous thickness, were deposited along their base, of which we have a notable instance in the Malvern Hills. In other localities, where these eruptive rocks did not exist, the conglomerate was either formed from boulders and pebbles of palæozoic sedimentary rocks in the neighbourhood, or loose sandy beds were page 294deposited. The latter were either derived from the disintegration, of these palæozoic coast ranges, or formed, in many instances, of quartzose sands of light tints, mostly the result of the destruction of the quartziferous porphyries which have travelled so far along the coast, and have in consequence become disintegrated. I have before observed that the conglomerates, consisting of boulders and pebbles of quartziferous porphyry, are of local occurrence, but there is one exception in the outlier behind the Thirteen-Mile Bush range (Big Ben) to which I wish to allude. The base of the whole series in that distant locality consists of a loose conglomerate made up of boulders of quartziferous porphyry quite similar to that occurring on the eastern side of the ranges; and as this outlier is situated amongst the mountains in a depression, the base of which is about 2,800 feet above the level of the sea, and is surrounded by heights of 4,000 to 5,000 feet, it is difficult to understand whence the material for this conglomerate could have-been derived, except from mountains of much greater altitude than at present exist, and from which the material was brought by currents over the summit of the ranges west of the Thirteen-Mile Bush range. A glance at the map will at once convey my meaning, and show how difficult it is to account for this occurrence in such a land-locked locality, separated from the range consisting of porphyries by a whole series of high mountains, unless we assume that the material for these beds was brought from another locality closer by, now hidden from our sight by younger deposits. In some localities, as, for instance, in the middle portion of the Malvern Hills, these conglomerates are of enormous thickness, about 6,000 to 8,000 feet, and are interstratified with ferruginous sands, fire clays, clay iron ore, shales, and small and irregular seams of brown coal, the latter sometimes partly altered and of no practical value. In other localities, including the Waipara, the lowest beds consist of loose sands, more or less ferruginous, about 100 feet thick, towards the upper portion of which small and impure seams of brown coal are interstratified. These beds follow the contours of the ancient shore line, dipping at the same angle. Thus, in the Waipara these sands and the brown coal seams dip 32 deg. to the east, in the Malvern Hills 19 deg. to the east-south-east. Whilst, as before observed, the brown coal formation in the Waipara is only represented by a few small seams of impure shaly coal, in the Malvern Hills it is of large horizontal extent, and many hundred feet thick, containing a number of seams, of which several are workable. At its base, and still separated by porphyry conglomerate, a bed about ten feet thick occurs, consisting almost entirely of fossil shells, of which a large white page 295triangular Ostrea, different from any of the fossil oysters above the coal seams, is the most conspicuous. This oyster is accompanied by casts of Panopæa, Cardita, Tellina, Trigonia, and a few others too fragmentary to be made out.

In all the principal localities the brown coal series is covered by a bed of shell sandstone, containing a great number of fossil shells, of which the following are the principal genera and species:—Dentalium majus, (Sow.), Pleurotoma, Turbo, Neptunea, Gonchothyra parasitica (McCoy), Aporrhais, Scalaria, Turritella, Calyptræa, Neritopsis, Cypraea, Purpura, Natica, Panopæa, Lutraria, Eriphylla, Zenatia, Pholadomya, Lucina Americana, (Sow.), Astarte, Cytheria, Dosinia, Cardium, Isocardia, Myacites, Protocardium, Venericardia, Crassatella, Area, Mytilus, Trigonia, Cucullæa alta, (Sow.), Cucullæa ponderosa (Hutton), Pectunculus, Pecten, Ostrea, Terebratella, Waldheimia, Rhynchonella. The following exuvise were also collected in the same horizon:—Saurian bones (waterworn, in the Malvern Hills); teeth of Lamna, Hybodus, and Otodus; scales of Hybodus; Dicotyledonous leaves; Araucarian cone and branches; leaves and twigs of Dammara.

Above the oysterbeds, (a local name appropriately given to the shellbeds), we meet either with a sandy clay iron ore (limonite) covered by glauconitic, and higher up by argillaceous sands, as in the Gorge of the Waipara, or with deposits of white quartzose sands with bands of ferruginous or calcareous sandstone, as in the Malvern Hills. The latter also gradually alter to sandy beds of a more argillaceous nature, both series being of a thickness of several hundred feet in the localities named. In the Waipara, the upper portion of these sands contains the remarkable concretionary nodules of limestone (Septaria) ranging from one foot to twelve feet in diameter, and enclosing besides saurian remains, specimens of Conchothyra parasitica, Cucullæa, and twigs and leaves of a Dammara. In all other localities these septaria are either missing, or when they do occur, never contain any saurian remains; and instead of them, (as, for instance, on the banks of the Selwyn river), layers, several feet thick, of a somewhat calcareous and micaceous sandstone, divide the sandy beds into a number of banks. In the Broken River basin the large black oyster continues to occur in the sands for a considerable distance, lying either singly or in banks.

The remains of fossil Reptilia from these septaria, collected by Mr. Hood, myself, and others, have been described by Professor Owen in page 296the "Transactions of the British Association for the Advancement of Science," 1861, p. 122, et seq., and in the "Geological Magazine," February, 1870, Vol. VII, p. 49, and by Dr. Hector, in the "Transactions of the New Zealand Institute," Vol. VI, p. 333 et seq., the latter summing up the main results as follows (page 334):—

"The general result is that portions of 43 individual reptiles, mostly of gigantic size and all of aquatic habits, and belonging to at least 13 distinct species, have been discovered. These species represent two distinct groups, the first with flat or slighlty biconcave vertebrae, being true Enaliosaurians, belonging to the genera Plesiosaurus, Mauisaurus* (gen. nov. allied to Elasmosaurus of Cope), and Polycotylus (Cope); and the other having procoelian vertebrae, as in most recent Lacertilia and Crocodiles, but provided with swimming paddles, and therefore representing probably the order Pythonomorpha of Professor Cope. This order is represented in the collection by two distinct genera, Liodon (Owen), and Taniwhasaurus,(gen nov. allied to Clidastes of Cope.) In addition there are several fragmentary remains, which, for the present, I only venture to place provisionally under one or other of these groups, and two vertebrae, which appear to belong to an exceptional form of the genus Crocodilus."

The following species have been obtained in the Waipara, of which remains are in the Canterbury Museum:—

Plesiosaurus Australis Owen
Plesiosaurus Crassicosfatus Owen
Plesiosaurus Hoodii Owen
Plesiosaurus Holmesii Hector
Plesiosaurus Traversii Hector
Plesiosaurus Mackayii Hector
Polycotylus tenuis Hector
Mauisaurus Haastii Hector
Mauisaurus latibrachialis Hector
Liodon haumuriensis Hector
Taniwhasaurus Oweni Hector
page 297

There are also some other fragmentary portions of bones in the Canterbury Museum which appear to belong to species as yet undescribed; but as the explorations of the beds by the Geological Survey of New Zealand is being actively prosecuted, I have no doubt that considerable light will be thrown upon the occurrence of these remarkable saurians, of which many have their nearest allies in the mesozoic beds of the North American Continent.

The next bed in ascending order is of great thickness, and consists principally of greensands, the grains of glauconite being often so numerous that the rocks appear almost black. Sometimes marly or argillaceous beds are interstratified with these greensands. There is generally found in this horizon a great sameness of character in all the sections examined. A few saurian bones hare been discovered in these greensands, but they are very scarce, generally very fragmentary, and seem to indicate that the true enalosaurians now neared their extinction. In the Malvern Hills these green sands gradually get lighter in colour, and are capped by quartzose sands in light tints, the whole forming cliffs 300 to 400 feet high. In the more northern portion of the Province the former alter by degrees to argillaceous aud calcareous deposits, forming sometimes small beds of chalk marls, or even chalk-like limestones, which are succeeded by a glauconitic, calcareous sandstone. This last is the highest bed in the whole series, and by it the interesting Waipara formation is closed in that district and its neighbourhood, where it forms generally high cliffs and bold escarpments. In the Malvern Hills, on the other hand, the calcareous beds are entirely missing, the uppermost arenaceous deposits belonging to this formation being covered by several coulées of basic rocks, with sometimes beds of palagonite tufa between them. In some localities a break seems to occur between the upper and lower calcareous series, as, for instance, in the Weka Pass ranges, where the lower, more calcareous strata are sometimes separated from the glauconitic massive upper beds by a small band of greensand containing concretions of a more calcareous nature. However, in many other localities this small bed does not occur, and the boundary between the two series is either gradual or sharply defined. Moreover, the upper beds are found to be always conformable upon the lower where the latter exists, being, in fact, a continuation of the same series, and owing to the sinking of the land, of greater horizontal extent than the more calcareous beds underlying them. Such a concretionary structure in the middle of the Calcareous series is, however, not uncommon, and occurs, also in the page 298next or Oamaru formation, of which a notable instance is found in the Otaio, where the lower calcareous beds are divided from the upper more glauconitic ones by a layer, possessing a similar concretionary structure, the same fossils being found above and below the division. Whatever may be the origin of this layer, in any case it is a proof that important changes did take place, by which the mode of deposition and lithological character of the rocks were considerably influenced, without, however, causing a break of any consequence in the continuity of the beds. The lowest chalk marls have yielded hitherto no fossils except a number of foraminifera, of which I have recognised several species as being identical with those described by Karr and Stache in the palseontogical portion of the great Novara work. The upper beds, offering the well-known building stones in the Waipara, Weka Pass, and Castlehill basin, contain a number of shells and other exuviæ, but the former mostly in the form of casts, generally difficult to recognise.

The following is a list of the genera and species, represented in the Canterbury Museum:— Mammalia — Cetacean bones. Aves— Small fragments of bones. Pisces—Teeth and vertebrae of Carcharodon, Lamia, Oxyrhina. Mollusca—Nautilus, cast; Pleurotoma, cast; Voluta elongata (Hutton), cast; Scalaria rotunda (Hutton), cast; Struthiolaria, cast; Solarium, cast; Imperator, cast; Cerithium, cast; Cardium, cast; Area, cast; Lucina, cast; Cytheria, cast; Mactra, cast; Lima, cast; Pecten Hochstetteri (Zittel); Pecten Williamsoni (Zittel); Ostrea; Waldheimia. Crustacea—Carapace of crab (Porcellana); Balanus, two species. Echinodermata—Schizaster rotundatus (Zittel); spines and portions of plates of Cidarites. Actinozoa—Turbinolia, several species; numerous fragments of Bryozoa.

* After Maui, the traditional discoverer of New Zealand.

"On the Fossil Reptilia of the Cretaceous Rocks of Kansas," by Professor E. D. Cope.

"Preliminary Report on Geology of Wyoning," F. V. Hayden, 1871, p. 385. "I have not been able to refer to the original paper, by Professor Cope in the 'Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc., 1868-70,' for the definition of this order.

After the Taniwha, or fabled sea monster of the Maori.

The Cretaceo-Tertiary Period in Westland.

As this formation presents some peculiar features I have thought it more convenient to offer a short outline of it separately. The beds begin also on this coast with coal-bearing deposits, and terminate with limestones, proving that a gradual subsidence of the country during, their formation took place. They are of enormous thickness, surpassing in that respect the beds on the eastern side of the central range, which have been co-related with them. The clearest and most complete section is open to our inspection on the banks of the lower Grey, where we can follow the complete series from the Brunner coal mines to page 299the Cobden limestones, the whole having a thickness of at least 5000 feet. The lowest beds consist of breccia, often very coarse, and having the appearance of being derived from morainic accumulations. They are succeeded by arcose micaceous sandstones and shales, with a number of coal seams interstratified with them, of which the largest one has an average thickness of 15 feet. Clays more or less micaceous cover them, containing a number of fossils, of which the following are the principal ones:—Fusus, Murex, Panopæa, Cardium, Ostrea, Inoceramus, Terebratula, Kleinia conjuncta (Hutton). I was told when visiting last the Brunner mines that an ammonite had been found in these clays, but my informant did not know what had become of the specimen. Upon the clays very thick beds of ferruginous sandstone, with concretions of clay ironstones, have been deposited, which appear to be unfossiliferous. These again are overlaid by greensands, sometimes quite black from grains of glauconite, which then appear to form the whole mass. The greensands are covered in their turn by dark marls gradually getting lighter m colour, upon which finally a more or less glauconitic limestone reposes, generally described as the Cobden limestone, and forming the uppermost bed of the whole series. It contains some shells and a number of Echinodermata, of which the following are the principal ones:—Scalaria, Inoceramus, Leda, Ostrea, Lima, Pecten, Terebratula, Nummelites, Macropneustes spatangiformis (Hutton), Macropneustes cordatus (Hutton), Macropneustes Australia (Hutton), Eupatagus Greyi (Hutton), Meoma brevipetalata (Hutton), Schizaster Lyoni (Hutton), Turbinolia. I have lately looked over the fossils, collected by me in this formation as far back as 1860 and 1865, and have been much struck by the absence of all the leading fossils of the eastern side, such as Ostrea, Trigonia, Cucullæa, and many others overlying the coal seams; whilst the Cardium of the Grey is also a different species from the one found in the co-related beds of the Waipara.

More to the south the strata belonging to the same horizon succeed each other in the following order. The lowest deposits of •the whole series examined by me on both banks of the Paringa river, are again formed of conglomerate, arcose, micaceous coal sandstone, and shales, with small seams of coal, forming the highest ridge of the &mall coast ranges. This series is overlaid by green sands, arenaceous sands or sandstones of a rather incoherent texture, containing sometimes concretions of ferruginous limestone, upon which numerous coulées of melaphyre follow, alternating with brecciated beds with. page 300a calcareous matrix, and changing on the one hand into a melaphyre tufa, on the other into almost pure limestone. These igneous rocks form the greater portion of tie iron-bound coast, having by their hardness hitherto so effectually resisted the never ceasing action of the powerful surf. More to the north of the Abbey rocks, the sections are not only more complicated, but the eruptive rocks seem to occur at various horizons, and are accompanied by beds of limestones, of which one consists of the lithographic limestone now being worked by Messrs. Docherty and McArthur. Marls, sandstones, and conglomerates appear above this limestone, and thus form the highest beds in this series, which more to the south seem all to have been destroyed. The whole is almost devoid of fossils, and those which I found consisted only of imperfect casts in some of the green sands, amongst which, however, I recognised Panopæa, Natica, and a small radiately striated Pecten. Some of the greensands are so full of fucoid impressions, that the whole forms a mass of flattened stems, lying across each other in all directions, so that many of these beds may best be described as fucoid sandstones. The lower beds have generally an inconsiderable dip to the west, whilst the upper series, including the coulées of melaphyre, stand at a very high angle, sometimes almost vertical. The lower conglomerates consist mostly of pebbles of quartz, and are thus easily distinguished from the upper conglomerates, formed of all the different kinds of rocks of which the lower portion of the central chain and the granitic outliers are formed. As before observed, it is difficult to co-relate these beds with those of the East Coast, owing to the absence of characteristic fossils; however, similar streams of basic rocks have been erupted at different intervals in the Malvern Hills during the cretaceo-tertiary period, so that in that respect similar features on both sides of the Alps are presented to us, in what I consider to be the same horizon.

Igneous Rocks.

The most important zone on the eastern side of the central chain, where igneous rocks are largely developed, is situated in the Malvern Hills. In one locality at the Kowai corner, they form a small hill of a crateriform appearance, with a lava stream running in a southerly direction. The rocks on the summit of this little system are granitoid, whilst some dykelike projections, passing through them, have a fine grained texture. Here also the rule holds good that that portion which has cooled more slowly in the form of dykes is more page 301compact and fine-grained, than the streams which have a more porphyritic structure; besides the example just given, the dolerites in the Acheron show this difference very conspicuously. The felspar in some of these latter beds is most probably nepheline. Another series here to be considered is the youngest. It occurs all along the eastern side of the district, forming large sheets of doleritic rocks, which have flowed over the bottom of the sea, and afterwards, when being raised to form subaerial hills, have protected the beds of loose quartzose sands below them. There are several streams, mostly close together, which in the Harper's hills and the Dean's range show all their characteristic features. The first stream flowing over the sands has generally had a vitrifying influence; the sands have been melted for a few inches, or even one foot, and have been changed into a flint-like rock. In other localities doleritic tufas overlying the sands have protected them so effectually, that no change is visible. Between the lava-streams, having a thickness varying from a few feet to nearly 100 feet, sometimes, layers of pitchopal occur, often enclosing stems and leaves of plants; in some other localities palagonite tufas have been formed. The basic rocks under review have the peculiar character to which the name of anamesite has been given by Leonhard, some of them are scoriaceous, having the vesicular cavities lined with sphærosiderite. The latter variety would offer good material for mill stones, a similar rock being extensively used on the continent of Europe for that purpose.

It might perhaps be useful if I allude here to the various characteristic features and age of these different basic rocks, which have during that whole period made their appearance, and through which some important changes have taken place in that district. There are three important divisions in the basic or basaltic rocks appearing during this geological period in that part of New Zealand:—First.—Rocks coeval with or even prior to the formation of the principal Brown coal beds, the latter having been altered effectually, both vertically and horizontally, by the former. Second.—Rocks appearing only after the deposition of the calcareous fossiliferous beds overlying the Brown coal series, or even after the formation of the greensands. Third.— Rocks of which the extensive streams of anamesite consist, forming a well defined horizon, and closing an important geological epoch in the district. The rocks of the first division are very peculiar. They have a dark greenish colour, are granular, and resemble in hand specimens some eruptive (diabasic) rocks of older origin. Some of them have the peculiar greenish tint which an admixture of chlorite usually gives, although I do not think it exists in them.

page 302

In Germany, rocks of this character are named hyperites, but I have no doubt - that the analysis of the New Zealand rocks will show that this resemblance is only apparent. No doubt the peculiar conditions under which these rocks made their appearance may account for their structure. They were, doubtless, deposited in shallow water, or even some of the beds might be of subaerial origin. Two forms of texture are easily identified, both occurring in the dykes and the coulées or streams. One of them more compact, although still having a doleritic and sometimes a porphyritic texture, with small grains or imperfect crystals of felspar interspersed. Another more granular and amygdaloidal, the pores and cavities either lined with sphærosiderite or filled with chalcedonic quartz. Some of the streams are of considerable dimensions, Mr. M. B. Hart having passed through one which has a thickness of about 75 feet. There are two localities where dykes belonging to another series occur, having been erupted during the formation of the greensands above the saurian beds. These dykes have quite a basaltic texture. Their being of deep-seated submarine origin may account for this difference in texture. In any case we have to classify them with the next series—the true doleritic rocks of which many have a porphyritic or even granitoid texture. They have been erupted after the formation of the coal-bearing beds, often dislocating and altering them in a most remarkable manner, and having preserved portions of these formerly more extensive strata from entire destruction.

The igneous rocks on the western side are different in texture, and resemble some of those varieties of basic rocks on the continent of Europe, to which the term melaphyre has been applied, but they are also different from the basic rocks underlying the quartziferous porphyries on the eastern flanks of the Alps. The basic rocks, north of the mouth of the Paringa, occur in different textures, of which a porphyritic melaphyre is the most conspicuous. It has a compact black matrix, containing a large number of hornblende crystals, and grains of magnetic iron. The hornblende crystals enclose sometimes very small grains of a yellowish green mineral, possibly olivine. The melaphyres at Arnott's point have also a compact black matrix, sometimes with a blueish tinge, enclosing small crystals of felspar (labradorite?), and hornblende; the joints are filled with carbonate of lime. The rock breaks in such small polyhedrie pieces, that it is almost impossible to secure, a properly sized specimen for the cabinet. It forms here coulées of 15 to 30 feet in thickness, alternating with page 303layers of brecciated wacke. The latter has also a compact black matrix and angular pieces of melaphyre, wacke or compact rocks of indistinct character, generally of reddish or brownish tints, often resembling porcelain jasper, are enclosed in it. The enclosed pieces are often surrounded by calcareous spar, also appearing in strings and veins, and filling up all the interstices. Small cavities in the calcareous spar are again filled with zeolites, of which crystals of apophyllite, sometimes with a highly lammellar structure, and of a beautiful brick-red colour, are most conspicuous. Other zeolites, as for instance, stilbite and analcime, are also present. In the coulées of melaphyre, near the contact with the brecciated wacke, pieces of the latter are usually enclosed. At the southern extremity of the melaphyres at Tauperikaka Point, the rocks have a compact black matrix, with greenish or bluish tinges. Besides very small crystals of hornblende, they contain also grains of magnetic iron and minute crystals of felspar, too small for recognition. They have a somewhat tabular, but sometimes an irregular columnar structure, and are here of very great thicknes; as, notwithstanding the coulées are standing at a very high angle, they not only form the coast-line, but reach far into the sea in the form of small islets and rocks, against which the surf breaks with vehemence. South of Jackson's Bay, both melaphyres and brecciated wacke occur, but my stay was so very short that I could devote no time to a closer examination, beyond observing that in lithological character they resembled the rocks previously described, and that they formed a considerable portion of the coast. Finally, I wish to say a word on the nomenclature, and the changes which are necessarily to be made in it, in order that all the beds belonging to the same formation may be brought together. Although Professor von Hochstetter gave the name to this formation in his synopsis of the New Zealand formations, he followed only Professor Owen, who basing his opinion upon the occurrence of Plesiosaurus Australis, thought that the beds in which this saurian occurred were probably Jurassic, an opinion which I shared till the other fossil contents became known to me. I then was forced to the conclusion, that as high up as the Weka Pass stone they could not be separated from the series containing not only the Grey and Shag point Coal Measures, but also the older Brown coal series found all over New Zealand. In fact, there is enough evidence before us to lead us to believe that the Buller and Pakawau Goal Measures, and also all the older Brown coalfields in the Provinces of Otago, Nelson, and Auckland, which latter were hitherto classed as older tertiary, have to be included in the Waipara formation.