444 Transactions. — Geology. 



permian system composes the broken mountain-chain dividing 

 Nelson from Marlborough, and its western and southern con- 

 tinuation the St. Arnaud and Spencer Mountains, the Kai- 

 kouras, and the greater part of the Southern Alps and 

 subsidiary ranges in Canterbury, which are everywhere dis- 

 tinguished by great slopes of moving shingle. 



Prom Canterbury it stretches into Otago, where it forms a 

 portion of the Kurow Mountains and the high rugged chains 

 which extend southward to central Otago and westward to 

 the sources of the Ahuriri Eiver, reaching even to the main 

 divide. 



This system also comprises the rocks forming the Hoko- 

 nui, Takitimu, and Longwood Ranges; and occupies the 

 area lying between the lower Clutha and Waikawa. The 

 shales, sandstones, and limestones of the Blue Mountains, 

 bounding the north side of the Shag Valley, are in all proba- 

 bility an extension of this system from the direction of 

 Mount Ida. 



From the foregoing it will be seen that practically all the 

 rocks throughout New Zealand to which a Carboniferous age 

 had previously been ascribed are now included in the Juro- 

 triassic system of Nelson and Nugget Point, in Otago. 



There is, however, still some doubt as to the geological 

 position of the gold-bearing rocks at Reefton, which consist of 

 slaty shales and sandstones, often much crushed, folded, and 

 altered. In Murray Creek, and elsewhere in the Inangahua 

 Valley, the Reefton rocks rest unconformably on a highly 

 denuded surface of grey quartzites, slates, and limestone. 

 The slates and limestone contain a rich marine fauna, in- 

 cluding Orthis, Stro'pJioinena, Trilobites, and other Lower 

 PalcBozoic genera. Mr. Cox referred these rocks to the Lower 

 Devonian or Upper Silurian, but Sir James Hector, in his 

 classification of 1887, '■' placed them in the Upper Devonian.! 



The Baton series, like the Reefton series, consists of a 

 great thickness of grey quartzite and slates passing into lime- 

 stone. The slates contain a large assemblage of marine 

 genera, including a number that appear to be identical with 

 forms found in the Reefton slates. In the above classifica- 

 tion the Baton series is referred to the Upper Silurian; but, 

 whether the Reefton rocks are Devonian or Silurian, they 

 afford no clue to the age of the gold-bearing series. 



In a paper on the Permo-carboniferous rocks of North 

 Otago I have described the discovery of Permo-carboniferous 

 fossils in the upper part of Hector's Kakanui (Walter and 



• Reps. Geol. Expl., 1874-76, p. 63. 



tKeps. GgoI. Expl., 1886-87, Appendix, p. 25G. 



