Hill. — On the District between Napier and Piiketitiri. 187 



the exception of the higher lands, all the Miocene and 

 Pliocene limestones were subjected to severe erosion, and 

 were replaced by enormous accumulations of sand, shingle, 

 conglomerate, and lignite lands such as now cover such a 

 large extent of country. 



Between Patoka and Eissington the whole area is covered 

 with a conglomerate deposit which varies in structure, some- 

 times presenting walls almost like a face of limestone, some- 

 times being of a deep-brown grit, and at others passing into 

 sands and shelly conglomerate. The shells where seen are 

 mainly the cockle and the oyster. It would appear that the 

 shingle-conglomerates were deposited within the vicinity of 

 salt-water, for bones are not uncommon, as the workmen who 

 quarry the conglomerates for roading often find large bones, 

 which appear to belong to a cetacean of some kind. I have 

 several of the bones so found, and specimens were sent to Sir 

 James Hector by a Napier gentleman, who received intima- 

 tion that they belonged to a cetacean. 



At Eissington the blue-clay marls, which form the lowest 

 beds of the Pliocene deposits, are well exposed, and on the 

 top of them are seen resting shingle and conglomerate which 

 have evidently planed down the clays and carried away the 

 limestones. 



As you rise the hills in the direction of Mr. Bennett's 

 homestead at Wharerangi the limestones again make their 

 appearance, and with fchem here and there are traces of the 

 shingle-conglomerates, which evidently at one time swept 

 across the tops of what are now the highest hills hereabouts. 

 Traces of the shingle may be noticed descending the hills 

 into the valley which opens at Puketapu into the Tutaekuri 

 Eiver, but their appearance is such as to bring doubts into the 

 mind regarding their true stratigraphical position. From 

 the valley the road passes over the hills in the direction of 

 Napier, and here the well-known upper limestones of the 

 Napier series are met with, whilst in certain places of the 

 inner harbour the shingle-conglomerates make their appear- 

 ance on the top of the blue marls, which represent the middle 

 beds of the Napier series. 



It may be that the shingle deposits that are met with here 

 and there from the top of the hills beyond Wharerangi to 

 Napier were deposited from a different stream from that which 

 swept over the whole country between Patoka and Eissington, 

 or perhaps the stream with its burden of shingle was diverted 

 somewhat further to the southward. In any case, the lime- 

 stones were left in the district between Wharerangi and 

 Napier, whilst they were replaced further to the south-west, 

 where remnants remain mixed with shingle, as if solidification 

 had taken place after the shingle had passed over the dis- 



