Hamilton. — Small Collection of Fosmls from Wharekuri. 465 



Akt. XXXVI. — Notes on a Synall Collection of Fossils from 

 Wharekuri, on the Waitaki Biver, North Otago. 



By A. Hamilton. 



[Read before the Otago Institute, 13th October, 1903.] 

 Plates XXXVII. and XXXVIII. 

 Last Easter I had an opportunity of visiting a portion of the 

 valley of the Waitaki immediately to the north of Kurow, 

 in company with Professor Park, and we spent one day at 

 Wharekuri, as I was anxious to see the locality in which 

 Mr. McKay discovered a large series of remains oi the huge 

 whale with the seal-like teeth, '■= called by Sir James Hector 

 Kekenodon onomata.\ A full description of the small deposit 

 of calcareous greensands and of the great variety of fossils 

 found is given on pages 67 and 68 of the Geological Eeport of 

 1881, and it will be seen from the notes that the locality is 

 a very important one for collectors. 



Crossing the Wharekuri Creek at the bridge, we put up 

 our horse and trap at the small accommodation-house close 

 by and walked up the creek to a small coal-mine worked in 

 a small seam of coal, and a short distance further on the 

 schistose beds of the older I'ocks forming Mount Mary come 

 in. 



On returning down the bed of the creek, about 12 chains 

 before reaching the bridge on the main road there is a very 

 interesting series of small faults, the main fault being nearly 

 vertical and running N.N.W. by S.S.E. The beds here 

 exposed on the cliffs on the east bank of the stream are about 

 10 ft. thick, 30 ft. of which are blue clayey sandstones very 

 full of fossils, all squeezed and distorted ; and on the down- 



FlG. 1. 



f h 



Section 12 Chains above Bridge over Main Road, Wharekuri. 



a. Recent river gravels. 



h. Blue clayey sandstones (fossiliferous). 



c. Soft yellowish sandstone (not fossiliferous). 



/. Fault, about 2 ft. wide. 



* Rep. Geol. Surv. N.Z., 1881, p. 73. 

 t Trans. N.Z. Inst., xiii., p. 436. 



.30— Trans. 



