Pake. — On the Waitemata Series. 397 



In January of 1888 Mr. McKay was directed to examine 

 the principal sections around Auckland and at Howick, on 

 which I had hased my conclusions in 1885. He agrees with 

 me on all the main stratigraphic points, and now admits that 

 the Parnell grit passes below tlie Fort Britomart beds.''' He 

 is also agreeable to my correlation of the Fort Britomart and 

 Calliope Dock beds, the latter of which he thinks must also be 

 underlain by the Parnell grit. 



Speaking of the Cheltenham Beach breccia, he says it dips 

 to the eastward, and must therefore pass over and be superior 

 to the CalHope Dock beds, which dip N.E. or N. at a very 

 low angle ; and in consequence of this he renounces his former 

 opinion that the Parnell grit is the southern extension of the 

 Cheltenham breccia, his reason for adopting this new view 

 being based on his admission that the Parnell grit passes below 

 the Fort Britomart. In his own words, he states, " As a con- 

 sequence of my admission that the Parnell grit does or should 

 pass under the Fort Britomart and Calliope "Dock beds, and of 

 the observed fact that the breccias north of Cheltenham Beach 

 overlie there, I am forced to agree with Sir James Hector that 

 the Parnell grit and the Cheltenham Beach and Takapuna 

 breccias do not occupy the same horizon, and that the Parnell 

 grit is the older deposit." I 



On the 29th August last I examined the line of section be- 

 tween Cheltenham Beach and the Calliope Dock, believing 

 that the stratigraphical evidence relied on by Mr. McKay was 

 not sufficient to prove that the fossihferous breccia at the 

 former place passed over the almost horizontal strata at the 

 latter. 



At Cheltenham Beach the dip of the strata forming the 

 cliffs at the north end of the sandy beach is to the east or sea- 

 ward at an angle of 35^^, as ascertained by myself in 1885, and 

 subsequently by Mr. McKay in 1888. The cross-section of 

 the end of the cliff is illustrated by the annexed sketch 

 (Plate XXX., fig. 1), where— 



1 is blue clays ; 



2, bed of coarse grit, showing false bedding at base ; 



3, bed of brown sandstone speckled with white grits 



(pass insensibly upward into the overlying bed); 



4, greenish tufaceous grits ; 



5, soft rusty-coloured sandstone, probably the upper de- 



composed surface of 4. 

 Passing northward from the end of the cliffs, the grit-beds 

 (Cheltenham Beach fossihferous breccia) run parallel with the 

 shore a distance of 10 or 12 chains, beyond which they are 



* " Geological Reports," 1888, p. 40. 

 t Ibid. 



