HuTTON. — The Geological History of Neio Zealand. 169 



Pakawau they lie directly on the Takaka system. This 

 shows that great denudation of the land had taken place 

 between the time of the upheaval of the Hokauui and the 

 deposition of the Waipara system. 



During the formation of the older rocks of this system 

 extensive eruptions of rhyolite took place along the western 

 margin of the Canterbury Plains, and these were followed by 

 dolerite and basalt. In Banks Peninsula we also find the 

 oldest volcanic rocks to be rhyolite ; and it is possible 

 that the andesitic calderas of Lyttelton, Little Eiver, and 

 Akaroa may also belong to the Cretaceous period, although it 

 is more probable that they are Tertiary. Many of the ande- 

 sites of Banks Peninsula are peculiar from containing olivine, 

 while the dykes cutting them are augite-trachytes. 



At the Waipara River and at Amuri Bluff the sedimentary 

 rocks contain Trujonia, Inocera^nus, Concliotliyra — a genus 

 allied to Pugncllus — as well as Belemnites and Ammonites; 

 also marine saurians belonging to the genera Cimoliosaurus, 

 Polycotylus, and Leiodon, which are more nearly allied to the 

 contemporaneous reptiles of North x\merica than to those of 

 Europe. Ammonites and Scaphites have also been found at 

 Waipawa, near Napier ; but none of these Cretaceous fossils 

 are known from the west coast of the South Island. Of the 

 plants, Araucaria, Flabellaria, and Ginnamomum may per- 

 haps be taken as characteristic ; but, according to Baron von 

 Ettingshausen, there are also several genera which still live 

 ■ in New Zealand. These are Panax, Loranthus, Hedycarya, 

 Santalum, Fagiis, Dammara, Podocarpics, and Dacrydium, 

 to which, on the authority of Mr. Buchanan, we may add 

 Aciphylla. These probably formed part of the foundation of 

 our present flora ; and, if this be the case, land must have 

 existed continuously in New Zealand from the Upper Cre- 

 taceous period to the present day. And, as the land stood 

 higher in the Cretaceo-jurassic times, we may safely infer that 

 since the middle of the Jurassic period New Zealand has never 

 been altogether submerged beneath the sea. 



Oligocene Period. 



Oamaru Series.''' — The oldest Tertiary rocks in New Zea- 

 land are the coal measures of Kaitangata, Waikato, Whanga- 

 rei, and other places. These were formed on land which, in 

 the Oligocene period, sank below the sea, when they were 



* I here include the Ototara and Mawhera series of Sir James Hector's 

 Cretaceo-tertiary formation, as well as his Upper Eocene formation, ex- 

 cept the Mount Brown beds. My reasons for doing so will be found in 

 the " Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London " (vol. 41, 

 pp. 266 and 547) ; also in the " Transactions of the New Zealand Insti- 

 tute " (vol. XX., p. 261.) 



