466 



Transactions. — Geology. 



NW 



throw side of the fault about 30 ft. of soft yellowish sandstone, 

 not fossiliferous. These are capped by several feet of recent 

 river-gravels. The fault is 2 ft. wide. (See fig. 1.) 



The terrace gravels and silts form the high banks of the 

 creek down to the junction with the Waitaki, which is here a 

 line river, carrying a large body of water and subject to high 

 floods. Just at the junction of the creek the river makes a 

 sharp turn northwards across the valley, and has swept away 

 the overlying river- gravels from a projecting pomt of dark- 

 green clayey sandstone, leaving the surface perfectly bare, and 

 over the whole surface are small concretions of hardened sand 

 enclosing a great variety of fossils. As far as I can make out 

 from Mr. McKay's report,* the remarkable series of bones of 



Section across Waitaki River Quarter -mile below Junction of 



Wharekuri Stream. 



A. Where the Atiiria was found. 



a. Terrace gravels and silts, with moa-bones. 



b. Dark-green cla\ey sandstones, very fo.^siliferous. 



five specimens of Kekenodon onomata must have been obtained 

 from the upper beds of this point before its recent erosion by 

 the river. We were not able to find any bones or teeth of 

 Kekenodon, but we were successful in collecting the fine 

 specimen of Aturia figured on Plates XXXVII. and XXXVIII. 

 The difficulty of getting this huge shell out of the hard marly 

 greensand was very great, as a large trench had to be dug on 

 all sides. Fortunately, sufficient of the matrix came away 

 with it to hold the shell together until it reached the Museum, 

 when Mr. Jennings, the skilful taxidermist, worked it out and 

 cut it into two halves. The shell still retains the nacreous 

 appearance. A portion of the thin outer chamber was un- 

 avoidably broken in the excavation, but the greatest diameter 

 is still between 15in. and 16 in. 



Amongst other fossils was a very iine PleurotoiiLaria oin. 

 in diameter at the base, at present undescribed, and a con- 

 siderable number of a Pecten alhed to F. Imtchin.soiii, but 

 having one side slightly ribbed and the other smooth, like 

 P. Yahlensis of tlie Australian Tertiaries. Mr. McKay men- 

 tioned that a large number of the concretions that he col- 

 lected contained crabs. We only found one, but this is, 



Eep. Geol. Surv. N.Z., 1882, p. G8. 



