Hill. — On the linapclni District. 427 



broken the grain is coarse and the fracture irregular, with 

 extremely sharj) edges. 



Between this place and the Rangitikei River, near Kelly's 

 accommodation - house, the distance is nine miles. The 

 country is bossy, and is a plateau varying between l,800it. 

 and 2,500ft. in height. Exposures by the way - side show 

 limestone scarps, and in several places the scarps show 

 the dip of the rocks to be towards the S.E. and S. at a 

 low angle. But the dip, as might be expected in a dis- 

 trict which has been so much affected by earth-movements- 

 and volcanic explosions, varies ver}- rapidly as one passes- 

 along the plain, and little value can be set upon the dip of the 

 rocks in this locality. When nearing the Rangitikei the road 

 descends rapidly towards the deep, narrow valley through 

 which the river has cut its way. On the left bank, below the 

 crossing, great scarps of blue clay-marls overtopped with lime- 

 stones are seen, and they appear to be similar to those at Ohauko,. 

 and which disappear in the left bank of the Taruarau Stream, 

 as described above. Towards the top of the Rangitikei Hill,, 

 by way of the newly-formed road leading to Erehwon, coarse 

 limestone blocks are exposed by the wayside. These contain 

 rather large-sized pebbles and many fragments of bivalve 

 shells, of which Ostrea iiujcns and Fectunculits laticostatus 

 could be distinguished. In this hill slates and fine and coarse 

 sandstones are found, the latter being in connection with the 

 limestones. At the top of the hill the Upper Patea district is- 

 reached, and limestones again top all the hills in the whole of 

 this somewhat extensive plateau, of which Erehwon is the 

 centre. The height of the limestones would vary from 2,700ft. 

 to 3,000ft. ; but on the margin of the volcanic basin, towards 

 the north-west, limestone is found m the scarps of the hills- 

 which overlook the volcanic basin at a height of not less than 

 3,500ft. above sea-level. At Moawhanga, a native settlement 

 five miles or so beyond Birch's homestead, the river has cut 

 out for itself a deep channel in the blue clay-marls which are 

 largely exposed in the whole of the valley. These clay-marls- 

 are very fossiliferous in certain places, and sometimes concre- 

 tionary limestones are found interbedded with them. The 

 same fossils were collected from them as from the blue clay- 

 marls in the Tutaekuri River already described. 



From Moawhanga to Mapoin-iki, on the Whangaehu River,, 

 five miles or so due east of Ruapehu, the distance is twenty- 

 two miles. Eor about half the distance the country partakes 

 of a limestone character, the limestone being interbedded 

 with calcareous sands, which are fossiliferous, laut the shells 

 are so broken that it is difficult to give with certainty their 

 specific names, except Ostrea cdzilis, Pccten tripliooki, Cardita 

 zealandica, Ilemimactra elonrjata, Anomia(^). On the border 



