456 Transactions. — Geology. 



river-basin to another : that is, the area which really constitutes 

 the water-parting between any two river-basins shows no traces 

 of shingle deposition. In other words, there is no evidence 

 that the shingle, which is well exposed in many places through 

 the course of each river, merged in the several river-basins 

 and covered the country from the westward to the place 

 where the rivers emptied themselves into the sea or inland 

 lake, as the case might be. Though no merging of the shingle 

 deposits took place, either in the middle or lower course of the 

 rivers named, it is found that these deposits are all connected 

 with an extensive area of country flanking the Mangahararu, 

 Titiokura, Kaweka, and Kuahine Eanges. This area is made 

 up of grits, shingle, conglomerate clay, and lignite, and it 

 extends in one continuous line, from north-east to south-west, 

 for a distance of more than 120 miles. The whole of the 

 country extending from Pohui, on the Taupo Boad, through 

 the Buataniwha Plain to Woodville, is composed mainly of 

 those beds. Traces of limestone are to be seen here and there, 

 but generally the limestone has been displaced by the con- 

 glomerate and cognate beds in the whole of this area. In 

 the shingle deposits no boulders of any large size are found, 

 nor are there traces of erratics of a material different from 

 the general characteristics of the rocks composing the con- 

 glomerates and shingle. Along the slopes of the ranges 

 between Kereru and Pohui there are a few traces of larger 

 and coarser material than is usually associated with the con- 

 glomerates, and farther to the south these deposits become most 

 marked, as they form long transverse ridges, running almost at 

 right angles to the direction of the Euahine mountain-chain. 

 The boulders composing these ridges are subangular, and are 

 mixed with a friable clay, and are seen to overlie the older 

 conglomerates, and, indeed, are unconformable to them. The 

 greater portion of the Buataniwha Plain appears to be made 

 up of these beds, which, though younger than the con- 

 glomerates, are older than the present river-deposits, being 

 evidently connected with the rivers when they flowed at a 

 higher level and in much larger volume. These transition 

 beds are Euahine products, and they may be traced as off- 

 shoots from the mountains throughout their whole extent, but 

 more particularly between Hampden and Woodville. The 

 underlying conglomerates flank the mountains and dip at a 

 high and uneven angle wherever exposed. On the western 

 side of the mountains similar beds are met with, and they dip 

 at an angle which suggests great changes since the time of 

 deposition. 



I have now given the distribution of the conglomerates, 

 and what may, perhaps, be classed as drift deposits in this 

 district. It will have been noticed that their main distribu- 



