872 Transactions. — Geology. 



none ; but Captain Hutton mentions four species occurring in 

 them, only one of which, Struthiolaria tuberculata, I found in the 

 lower beds. I would refer these rocks to the Awatere series of 

 the Geological Survey. They are conformably overlaid by the 

 Pohui limestone. This is a thick baud of coarse, shelly lime- 

 stone, often loose calcareous sand, with harder bands at irregular 

 distances, and not continuous, at least where the Taupo Road 

 crosses it. Further to the S.W., on the Te Waka Eange, it is 

 perhaps 100 feet thick ; and further to the S.W. appears to be 

 much thicker. It abounds with fossil shells in the lower part ; 

 and in the upper part, not far from the Taupo Road, it is full of 

 small corals. Further to the S.W., and S.E. of its disap- 

 pearance on the road-line before reaching Pohui, this lower 

 limestone is followed by argillaceous sands of about the same 

 thickness as those seen between the two limestones in Scinde 

 Island, and these are followed by a second limestone, as in 

 Scinde Island. It is this upper limestone that forms the peculiar 

 cubical, castellated feature of Te Waka itself, the inferior lime- 

 stone forming the western scarp of the range, and separated 

 from the upper as already stated. 



The lower limestone, however, shows in the scarp, running 

 nearly N. and S. at the back of Pohui, and finally disappears at 

 Pohui Lake. The upper limestone, yet separated by the argilla- 

 ceous sands spoken of, disappears half a mile to the S.E. at the 

 first bridge on the road to Napier. This represents the section 

 in Scinde Island; that is, the succession and character of the 

 rocks are the same. The fossils have yet to be exhaustively 

 collected before this can be finally determined. 



The fossils I obtained are chiefly the larger Pectens found 

 in the lower limestone in Scinde Island. They were specially 

 sought for, as I was under the impression these would determine 

 the age of the beds; but Valuta pacifica, Pinna neozealanica, 

 Pecten radiatus, Modiola areolata, and Waldheimia lenticular) is, 

 were also collected, shells yet living, and not found lower than the 

 limestone in Scinde Island. It further seemed to me that had 

 an exhaustive collection been made, it would have been charac- 

 terised by a very large percentage of recent species. It would, 

 however, be unfair to add these recent species as occurring in 

 the lower of the Scinde Island beds, and thus raise yet higher 

 the percentage of recent species found in that limestone. 

 This is already sufficiently high ; but there seems some reason 

 to suppose that, contrary to what Captain Hutton says is pro- 

 bable, further research will add to and not diminish this per- 

 centage ; and I believe that two of the species mentioned do 

 occur in the lower beds in Scinde Island. 



I have not time, nor is it my present purpose, to discuss the 

 probabilities of an unconformity in this line of section east 

 of Pohui. I could not determine any such to be present. I 



