336 Transactions. — Geology. 



Art. LVII. — The Wanganui System. 

 By Captain F. W. Hutton, F.G.S. 



[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 6th August, 1885.] 



Plates XII., XIII. 



Dr. von Hochstetter, in 1864, placed the Wanganui Kiver beds 

 with his Hawke's Bay series, in the younger of the two groups 

 into which he divided our tertiary rocks ; x and he considered 

 them to be of pliocene age. He did not, however, visit the 

 district, and gave no list of fossils obtained from there. 



In 1867, Mr. J. Buchanan, of the Geological Survey, made 

 a large collection of fossils from between Wanganui and the 

 Patea, and he divided the rocks into a lower blue clay and 

 upper sandy beds. 2 These fossils were examined by Dr. Hector, 

 who placed the upper sandy beds in the post-tertiary, and the 

 lower blue clay in his upper tertiary or Struthiolaria beds, 

 together with the blue clays of Awatere, Motunau, Awamoa, and 

 other places. 3 



On a re-examination of these fossils, in 1872, I followed Dr. 

 Hector in keeping the upper beds in the pleistocene, but sepa- 

 rated the blue clay of (Shakespeare Cliff from the other beds 

 associated with it as a separate and younger formation, under 

 the name of the Wanganui Formation. 4 This I considered to 

 be pliocene, and the Awatere series to be upper miocene. 



In 1875, Mr. A. McKay referred to the Wanganui Formation 

 some conglomerates and highly fossiliferous sands with pumice 

 overlying the Napier limestone, between Cape Kidnappers and 

 the Mariatotara River. 5 



In 1876, Mr. S. H. Cox ascertained that a considerable 

 thickness of marine strata, with abundance of fossils, mostly 

 recent, were superimposed upon the Napier or Scinde Island 

 limestone, in Hawke's Bay. 6 He gave a list of these fossils, 

 which Dr. Hector pronounced to be the same as those from the 

 upper beds at Wanganui, and he placed the rocks in the 

 Wanganui Formation. 7 



In 1877, Mr. A. McKay traced these beds from the Manawatu 

 Gorge to Napier, 8 giving them the name of Botella beds. In 



1 " Eeise der Novara," Geologischer, Theil I., p. xl. 



2 " Trans. N.Z. Inst.," vol. ii., p. 163. 



3 " Catalogue of the Colonial Museum," Wellington, 1870, p. 172. 



4 " Cat. Tert. Moll, and Echin. New Zealand," Wellington, 1873 ; and 

 " Quart. Jour, of the Geol. Soc. of London," vol. xxix., p. 373. 



5 " Eep. Geol. Expl.," 1874-76, pp. 44 and 49. 



6 " Bep. Geol. Expl.," 1874-76, p. 96. 



7 " Eep. Geol. Expl.," 1874-76, pp. viii. and x. 



8 " Eep. Geol. Exp.," 1876-77, p. 79. 



