186 Transactions. — Geology. 



position ; and yet there is no trace of a break, an intrusion, or 

 a change in the direction of currents. In some places hardly 

 another variety of shell — except a Patella or a Balanus — is to 

 be found, and yet within a score or two yards are other banks 

 containing a whole museum of specimens. 1 have taken 

 photographs of several of the banks, and have made lantern- 

 slides to show what life there must have been thereabouts in 

 the days when the oysters were at their prime. Such deposits 

 in these days would satisfy even the demands of a city hke 

 Loudon for years, although I doubt whether epicures of this 

 bivalve would have wished for an oyster-supper where one or 

 tioo oysters at the most was sufficient for a meal ! 



The Miocene beds continue from Puketitiri in the direc- 

 tion of Patoka, changing somewhat their rock characters as 

 they proceed. The limestones are seen to rest upon a pale- 

 blue sandy limestone and marl, containing plenty of fossils, 

 such as Struthiolaria, Cytherea, Pecten, Natica, Murex, and 

 Ostrea. At the Patoka Hill laminated limestone is inter- 

 bedded with fossiliferous sands, and these are seen to be above 

 the marly limestone containing the fossils just named. Few 

 or no fossils are to be seen in this laminated limestone, 

 although traces of broken shell, such as Pecten and Balamis, 

 can be distinguished. 



Proceeding towards Napier from Patoka the country ap- 

 pears rugged and broken. We are now on the eastern slope 

 of the Titio-kura limestone range, of which Te Waka is such 

 a prominent point from the Napier bluff. Immediately fol- 

 lowing the Patoka Hill is a smaller one at its foot, and this 

 is quite different in structure from the rocks that have been 

 hitherto met with. We are now in the line of the con- 

 glomerates, which, commencing north of Pohui in sands 

 and grit, strike to the south-west and intrude themselves 

 everywhere, sometimes resting beside the limestones, some- 

 times replacing them, and sometimes being apparently mixed 

 with shelly limestone, and so thrusting themselves every- 

 where till they partly lose themselves in the Euataniwha 

 Plain. 



Whenever I come among these conglomerates there always 

 arises in my mind a doubt as to their age, and yet they can 

 be traced regularly over a large area of this district. Some- 

 times I have been inclined to the opinion that they are 

 contemporary with the Pliocene limestones which appear 

 overtopping the Miocene deposits as far back towards the 

 mountains as the Birch Hills ; at other times they seem to 

 me as belonging to the Miocene beds; and yet there can 

 hardlv be a doubt that they were deposited subsequently to 

 the Pliocene beds, and during their deposition the Miocene 

 and Pliocene deposits were greatly denuded. In fact, with 



