306 Transactions. 



The majority of the pre-Notocene rocks show a striking resemblance 

 to the greywacke-argillite series so prominently developed in the Welling- 

 ton district and in the eastern mountains of Canterbury, but it is perhaps 

 significant that neither McKay nor I have observed the annelid Toiiessia 

 mackat/i Bather, so common in tliese other areas. The only palaeonto- 

 logical evidence of age found by McKay, besides broken plant-remains, was 

 a fragment of a fern " apparently Taeniopteris,'" from the lowest beds on 

 the west side of the Elliott River. This would tend to prove, if his 

 identification of the specimen and his reading of the sequence are correct, 

 that all the pre-Notocene rocks are of Mesozoic age. They are all, of 

 course, pre-Clarentian — i.e., earlier than the iniddle Cretaceous. The pre- 

 sence of bands of red and green argillites in the Kaikoura Mountains, 

 however, renders this .improbable. During the ascent of Tapuaenuku I 

 observed from above one sucJi band in the hills fronting the fault-line 

 between the Mead and Dee Eivers. The Lands and Survey majJ of the 

 Tapuaenuku Survey District presumably records a second band of these 

 rocks by the name " Red Hills " given to a spur on the north-west side of 

 the Hodder River. Now, in the similar rocks crossing Tavlor's Pass, 

 McKay (1890, p. 116) records the presence of fossiliferous limestones yield- 

 ing fragments of Inoceramvs shells. It must be remem})ered that the 

 Permo-Carboniferous Wairoa limestone also contains fragments of a fibrous 

 shell commonly called Inoceramus by McKay, so that it is perfectly possible 

 that the limestone of Taylor's Pass is also Permo-Carboniferous, and that 

 similar rocks occur in the Kaikoura Range. 



I have observed in two widely separated localities fragments of fossil? 

 which indicate a Mesozoic age for the rocks containing them, but in neither 

 case are the rocks quite typical of the pre-Notocene greywacke-argillite 

 series, and they belong, I believe, to a younger series, though both are 

 most clearly pre-Clarentian. In the lower Dee River, after the basal 

 Clarentian conglomerates are passed, and on the banks of the Clarence 

 River between the Dee and the Limburne, the rocks consist of hard sand- 

 stones, not unlike typical greyw^ackes, and much-jointed black mudstones 

 with white bauds and large rounded concretions, in which coarse frag- 

 ments of a fibrous shell like Inoceramus are found. Again, in the Herring 

 River, the rocks lying unconformably below the eastern Clarentian outcrop 

 consist of thin and regularly bedded sandstones alternating with shale-, 

 none of the rocks being much more indurated than many exposures of the 

 Clarentian. They strike N. 1-5° W., and dip at 50° to the south-west, 

 whereas the overlying Clarentian rocks strike N. 40° E., and dip at 40° 

 to the north-west, so that the unconformity is exceedingly well marked. 

 From the underlying series I obtained a nearly complete specimen of 

 Inoceramus, which I submitted to Mr. H. Woods, of Cambridge, but 

 unfortunately he pronounced it indeterminable as to species. The sand- 

 stones also contain plant-impressions. I believe a sufficient collection could 

 be made at this point to determine the age of this series. I discovered 

 its fossiliferous nature only on my way out from the valley and after the 

 pack-horses carrying my luggage liad preceded me up the pass, so that it 

 was impossible at that time to spend any length of time collecting. 



Sandstones and shales, in general similar to the typical greywackes and 

 argillites, but somewhat less indurated, and containing calcareous con- 

 cretions, are of wide otturrence in Marlborough. They underlie the Ujiper 

 Cretaceous beds at Amuri Bluff unconformably, and have been termed by 

 Buchanan (1867) the '' marlstones,"" a name that is certainly ina})plicable. 

 Similar rocks were termed bv von Haast the " cannon-ball sandstones." 



