HuTTON. — On the Moas of Neic Zealand. 143 



(Miocene), found in the immediate neighbourhood, were the 

 equivalents of the tufaceous beds, althougli he did not succeed 

 in finding the fossihferous beds actually croppmg out between 

 the lava-streams." But in 1872 he says that the limestone at 

 Mount Horrible (Weka Pass limestone) is "subdivided by 

 several coulees of the anamesites ;"i and in his " Geology of 

 Canterbury" (1879) he refers the Timaru volcanic rocks to 

 the Oamaru (Eocene) formation. Writing of the section at 

 Mount Horrible, he omits liis former statement that lavas are 

 interbedded with the limestone, and says, " Upon the cal- 

 careous greensands forming the upper bed of the Oamaru 

 formation, and which is often so rich in carbonate of lime 

 that it can be used for the lime-kiln, a bed of volcanic tufa 

 reposes, sometimes changed into an agglomerate, after which 

 the first lava-stream appears. Then follow a number of 

 tufaceous beds with some smaller lava-streams between them, 

 till the uppermost coulee is reached, having, like the lowest 

 one also, a thickness of about 50ft. The anaraesitic rock is 

 extensively quarried near Timaru, and forms a valuable build- 

 ing-stone for that town" {I.e., p. 314). 



In 1876 Mr. A. McKay, of the Geological Survey, found in 

 this locality blue sandy beds with Miocene marine fossils, 

 overlain conformably by grey sands, lignite, and gravels ; and 

 he says that the volcanic rocks of Timaru are associated with 

 the Pareora (Miocene) beds.| A few years later, relying on 

 Dr. von Haast's statement that lavas were actually inter- 

 stratified with the calcareous rocks, he considered that these 

 must be older than the lavas of Mount Horrible and Tmiaru, 

 which, he says again, belong to the Pareora formation, § and 

 form part of the latest display of volcanic energy in this 

 Island. But, as Dr. Haast does not mention this supposed 

 intercalation of calcareous rocks and lava - streams in his 

 " Geology of Canterbury," we must suppose it to have been a 

 mistake, and consequently thei'e is no reason to regard any of 

 the volcanic rocks near Timaru as of Eocene as;e. 



That these lavas were not younger than Miocene was 

 therefore the opinion of 'the only two geologists who had ex- 

 amined the locality. But last year Mr. H. O. Forbes pub- 

 lished his opinion that they were probably of " newer Pliocene 

 or even Pleistocene age."|| This conclusion was not arrived 

 at by a re-examination of the sections at Mount Horrible 

 and the Pareora. Mr. Forbes merely went to a quarry near 



* " Eeport on the Geological Formation of the Timaru District," 

 pp. 10 and 12. 



t Rep. Geol. ExpL, 1871-72, p. 25. 



+ Eep. Geol. Expl., 187G-77, pp. 51 and G6. 



§ Rep. Geol. Expl., 1879-80, p. 78. 



r Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xxiii., p. 372. 



