362 Transactions. — Geology. 



they have not been followed ; but in Cannibal Gorge mica- 

 schists and phyllites occur, which probably belong to the 

 Kakanui series, and are probably continuous with the schists 

 of the Teremakau. According to Mr. S. H. Cox these mica- 

 schists are underlain by slates and limestones;* but this 

 is very improbable ; and most likely these carbon-slates, 

 calcareous slates, and white limestone belong to the Eeefton 

 series — perhaps more or less altered by contact with the 

 granite of the Victoria Mountains — and lie unconformably on 

 the mica-schists. 



North of Cannibal Gorge the schists are overstepped by 

 sandstones and slates belonging to the Maitai system, and it 

 is uncertain whether the schists of western Marlborough and 

 eastern Nelson should be considered as belonging to them. 



In the Collingwood district mica-schists and phyllites are 

 found near the mouths of the Aorere and Parapara Eivers, 

 which pass under grey and dark-blue slates of the Aorere 

 series containing diprionidian graptolitesf undoubtedly of 

 Ordovician age. It seems probable that these schistose rocks 

 are the equivalents of the Kakanui series, and underlie the 

 Aorere series unconformably ; but this last point has not yet 

 been made out distinctly. 



2. Western Otago. 



The foliated rocks of the West Coast sounds, from Milford 

 to Dusky — forming the gneiss-granite formation or crystal- 

 line schists of Sir James Hector, and the Manapouri foniia- 

 tion of myself — have been generally regarded as consisting 

 principally of typical gneisses of Archaean age, and as passing 

 below the mica-schists of northern Otago. I Last summer, 

 during the excursion of the Australasian Association to the 

 Sounds, I collected a number of these rocks from Wet Jacket 

 Arm, from George Sound, and from Milford Sound, which I 

 have examined microscopically, and found to consist chiefly of 

 plagioclase and hornblende or biotite, quartz being almost 

 completely absent. The rocks, therefore, are not gneiss- 

 granites, but schistose diorites and gabbros, and their 

 microscopical texture shows that all of them are plutonic 

 eruptive rocks which have undergone strong dynamic meta- 

 morphism. In the following short descriptions I have con- 



* " Reports of Geological Explorations," 1883-84, p. 4, Nos. 2 to 4 of 

 the section. 



t Phyllograptus folium. His. I have also recognised Didymograptiis 

 qtiadribracJiiatus, Hall, and D. octobrachiatus, Hall. All three are found 

 in the Lower Silurian slates of Victoria. Both genera are Lower 

 Silurian oul}'. 



I Haast, " Geology of Canterbury and Westland," Christchurch, 1879, 

 p. 225. 



