430 Transactiom. — Geology. 



tion of Ml-. McKay's arguments in favour of unconformity 

 between tiie Hutchinson's Quarry beds and the Ototara hme- 

 stone remains intact, although I now, for other reasons, think 

 his conchision probable. The only alteration necessary to make 

 in my paper is to erase the words I have italicised in the 

 following sentence : — '' Cape Oamaru is formed by an old 

 volcano, ivhich has broken through the Ototara limestone, ami icas 

 active when the marine beds of Hutchinson's Quarry were being 

 deposited." [I.e., p. 561.) 



Art. LV. — Note on the Geology of the Valley of the Waihao 



in South Canterbury. 



By Professor F. W. Button, F.G.S. 



[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 6th May, 1886.] 



In 1875, Dr. von Haast sent to the Otago Museum a collection 

 of fossils from Whiterock Eiver ; Mount Harris ; Point Hill, 

 Waitaki ; and Waihao Forks, with the request that I would 

 examine them. The results of my examination went to show 

 that the whole collection belonged to the Pareora System. "^^ 

 Dr. von Haast agreed with me as to the age of the fossils from 

 the first three localities, but had doubts about those from the 

 greensands at Waihao. He says : " These greensands are over- 

 laid by calcareous greensands with all the characteristic fossils 

 of the Oamaru formation, on the edges of which the Pareora 

 formation reposes unconformably ; consequently a careful study 

 of the more extended collections from these beds is needed to 

 settle this point to my satisfaction."! In October, 1880, Mr. 

 A. McKay examined the district for the Geological Survey of 

 New Zealand. In his report he classes these beds, which he 

 calls " marly greensands," with the cretaceo-tertiary series of 

 the Survey, and in his map he marks them as lower cretaceo- 

 tertiary. | He thus agrees with Dr. von Haast that they under- 

 lie the Waihao limestone, but he makes no reference to the 

 disagreement between the palfeontological and the stratigraphical 

 evidence, and appears to see no difficulty at all in the structure 

 of the district. Last year I examined the collection of fossils in 

 the Canterbury Museum from Waihao, and in December I paid 

 a visit to the district to try to clear up the difficulty. 



• " Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. ix., p. 594. 



t " Geology of Canterbury and Westland, 1879," p. 315. 



J " Reports of Geological Explorations for 1881," p. 71. 



