174 Transactions. 



gives a section (pi. ii, fig. A) in which are shown " the greensands with 

 Pachymagas parki " followed by a glauconitic shell-bed (bed i), a hard brown 

 limonitic sandstone (bed h), and soft glauconitic sands (bed g), and all these 

 beds are classed as Hutchinsonian. These beds ab-ove the " parki " green- 

 sands are Park's Upper Hutchinsonian. The Awanioan beds are said to 

 lie above this so-called Upper Hutchinsonian. Now, the glauconitic sandy 

 shell-bed (bed *) is crowded with moUuscan casts and extremely fragile shells, 

 and there is no doubt that it is similar to the shell-beds at Target Gully and 

 Ardgowan, which all geologists recognize as Awanioan, and its position 

 immediately above the " parki " band confirms this (compare Park's section 

 at All Day Bay, p. 56). These beds {g, h, i, of pi. ii, fig. A) are undoubtedly 

 Awamoan, and there is, therefore, no Upper Hutchinsonian at the Rifle 

 Butts. 



(5.) Hutchinson's Quarry (pp. 60-61). 



In this locality the junction of the greensands with the limestone is not 

 clear, although they undoubtedly overlie it. As the Upper Hutchinsonian 

 is not stated to be present, it is unnecessary to discuss the section further. 



(6.) Target Gully (pp. 79-80). 



In this locality the Awamoan and Upper Hutchinsonian are said to be 

 present in the sam^ section. From the description given it is difficult to 

 judge exactly which beds are referred to the Upper Hutchinsonian. The 

 following statement occurs on page 79 : " The glauconitic sandstone [Upper 

 Hutchinsonian] follows the greensands conformably at the shell-bed (Target 

 Gully)." These greensands are Lower Hutchinsonian (p. 78). On the same 

 page it is stated that " at the shell-bed. Target Gully, it [the glauconitic 

 sandstone] consists of soft glauconitic sandstone interbedded with hard 

 yellowish-brown sandstone bands." In the section given on page 80 the 

 horizons of the beds are not indicated ; the fossiliferous greensands (bed c), 

 which are the lowest greensands exposed in the section, must, according to 

 Park's first statement quoted above, belong to his Lower Hutchinsonian, 

 leaving a hard yellowish-brown glauconitic sandstone (2 ft. to 4 ft. thick) to 

 represent the Waitaki stone (Upper Hutchinsonian). The fossils in this 

 sandstone are in the form of casts, and no palaeontological or other evidence 

 is offered to support the contention that the bed is at the horizon of the 

 limestone in the Waitaki Valley (the so-called Upper Hutchinsonian). If 

 Park refers all the greensands to his Upper Hutchinsonian, as would appear 

 from the second statement quoted above, there is still no evidence to support 

 this view. Of the seventy-two species of MoUusca listed from bed c, sixty- 

 seven species occur in Park's list of Awamoan fossils (pp. 97-105), three 

 forms are Recent, and the other two are not' characteristic. The percentage 

 of Recent species is said to be 40-3 ; and, as the percentage of Recent 

 species in the Awamoan of the Oamaru district is stated by Park to be 32-9, 

 there would seem to be no justification for separating these beds from the 

 Awamoan horizon. Pachymagas parki (Hutt.), however, is said to occur in 

 the form of casts in bed d, and as the same fossil is recorded from bed c, and 

 this is the characteristic fossil of Park's Lower Hutchinsonian, the beds 

 might equally well be referred to his Lower Hutchinsonian. As a matter 

 of fact, in the absence of a brachiopod fauna it is a difficult matter to dis- 

 tinguish the Hutchinsonian from the Awamoan. As Park says (p. 53), " the 

 relationship existing between the Hutchinsonian and Awamoan is generally 

 so close that it is difficult to define where the one ends and the other begins." 



