Uttlby. — Remarks on Bulletin No. 20. 171 



a solution by his theory that there were two limestone horizons, separated 

 by the Hutchinson Quarry and Awamoan beds (Pareora) ; or, in other 

 words, that there was but one " Pareora fauna," lying between two lime- 

 stones, the lower being called the Ototaran stone and the uppei" the 

 Waitaki stone. 



The present writer (refer to Thomson, 1915, p. 123), after an excursion 

 to the Waihao district of South Canterbury, was convinced that, where 

 the full series was developed, there was but one limestone present. An 

 examination of the fauna beneath the limestone showed that it bore a 

 remarkable resemblance to the fauna above the limestone in the Waihao 

 district, where the -beds occur in the same section. This view was sup- 

 ported by Thomson (1915, p. 123), who subsequently visited the Waihao 

 district. Park, however (1905, p. 510), had given a section at Kakanui 

 in which his two limestones were shown separated by the fossiliferous beds. 

 The present writer (1916, pp. 22-25) sought to prove that this section had 

 been misinterpreted, and that only one limestone was present, with the 

 fossiliferous beds lying above it. Park in his latest work has evidently 

 accepted this interpretation of the section, for the Awamoan beds are now 

 placed at the top of the sequence in the Oamaru and Kakanui districts. 

 As pointed out above, however, he still maintains that the limestone of the 

 Waitaki Valley is distinct from the limestone of the Oamaru district. 



III. Description op 'the Hutchinsonian and Awamoan Stages as 



INTERPRETED BY PaRK. 



Before discussing the sections described in Bulletin No. 20 it will be 

 necessary to form a clear conception of Park's various subdivisions of the 

 beds above the Ototaran. Correlation of beds is possible on palaeonto- 

 logical or lithological evidence, or by direct stratigraphical connection, 

 and it seems to the writer that Park has relied mainly on the lithological 

 evidence in establishing his Upper Hutchinsonian horizon. The following 

 quotations will indicate his conception of the post-Ototaran beds. 



' ' (1.) Avjamoan Beds. 



" The Awamoan strata consist of blue or bluish-green marine sandy 

 clays that in some places pass into bluish-green sea-muds, in other places 

 into very soft sandstones. In most places they are interbedded at distant 

 intervals with hard calcareous bands that are sometimes sandy, in others 

 argillaceous and crowded with shells. In some places the hard bands 

 are replaced by calcareous nodular concretionary masses and flaggy lenses, 

 occurring in more or less well-defined horizons." 



It will be shown that these hard calcareous bands in the Awamoan are 

 referred by Park to the Upper Hutchinsonian in the Target Gully locality. 



(2.) Hutchinsonian Beds. 



The Hutchinsonian is subdivided lithologically, in descending order, 

 into — (a) Glauconitic sandstone (Upper Hutchinsonian) ; (b) Glauconitic 

 greensands (Lower Hutchinsonian) ; (c) Conglomerate, mainly basaltic. 



The glauconitic sandstone (a) is said to represent the Waitaki stone of 

 Upper Hutchinsonian age. He describes this horizon as follows : " The 

 glauconitic sandstone follows the greensands conformably ... it con- 

 sists of soft glauconitic sandstone interbedded with hard yellowish - brown 

 sandstone bands . . . it is a compact yellowish-brown calcareous 



