428 Transactions. — Geology. 



of the volcanic basin the hniestones present a series of re- 

 markable scarps in the direction of Euapehii, and it would 

 seem as if the limestones had at one time covered the country 

 now occupied by volcanoes and volcanic products. 



Our party pitched camp at Mapouriki, and spent several 

 ■days in the vicinity of Kuapehu and the Eangipo Desert. The 

 whole of the volcanic district had been visited by me two 

 years before, and I had ascended Euapehu on the western 

 side for a height of nearly 6,000ft. From Mapouriki no 

 attempt was made to get to the top of the mountain, but our 

 party, if I may say so, went into it. Euapehu is an immense 

 truncated cone, whose crater has been blown out on the 

 eastern side. There now remains a kind of amphitheatre, 

 with perpendicular walls on three sides not less than 1,200ft. 

 in height. In the middle of this vast cinder-heap stands the 

 neck of what was at one time a volcanic vent. From this 

 isolated pedestal, tbe top of which is more than 7,000ft. above 

 sea-level, an observer commands a full view of the everlasting 

 snow-fields, and can see the sources of the Whangaehu, sepa- 

 rated from that of the Waikato by a low saddle. The 

 grandeur and sublimity of the scene, combined with its awful 

 weirdness and desolateness, need not be described here. My 

 purpose was to see the rocks, to collect specimens, and to 

 observe the effects of volcanic phenomena. I had now 

 traversed the whole of the volcanic district, and it will be my 

 aim to deal with the question of volcanic phenomena in a 

 second paper. 



From what has already been stated with regard to the 

 rocks between Napier and the volcanic basin, it will be 

 inferred that no rocks of the younger Secondary formations 

 are met with, nor even of the Lower Tertiaries. The last 

 appearance of these is between Te Aute and Waipawa, so that 

 they do not even come within the range of the district under 

 notice. The blue clays and marls are similar to those so 

 connnon along the east coast, more especially in the northern 

 part of Hawke's Bay, and which in a former paper I ventured 

 to term Miocene. The limestones between Moawhanga and 

 the volcanic basin are younger than most of the other lime- 

 stones, and are closely allied to those of the Pukekuri Hill, 

 near Taradale, which contain sandy clays, and belong to the 

 Petane or Napier upper series. The other hniestones are in- 

 termediate between these and the clay-marls of the Miocene 

 rock. The Woodthorpe beds are the youngest of the Pliocene 

 rocks, and have their representatives over a large extent of 

 country eastward of the Euahine and Kaweka Mountains. 

 The pumice-terraces appear to belong to the same period of 

 deposition as the Woodthorpe beds. The slates I am doubtful 

 ■of, as, although carefully sought after, no traces of fossils 



