McKay. — On the Waihao Oremsands. i'JS 



In 1865, the Director of the Survey placed the Hampden 

 (Onekakara) beds below the calcareous rock of Oamaru, and the 

 Caversham sandstone near Dunedin, referring both to the 

 Eocene period ; and in 1877 included them in the Cretaceo- 

 tertiary series. In 1873, Hutton referred both the Hampden 

 aud the Kakahu beds to Upper Miocene ; and in 1875, after 

 having examined the stratigraphy, was confirmed in his opinions 

 respecting the Miocene age of the Hampden beds. Durmg 

 1867-68, V. Haast made collections from the Waihao green- 

 sands, etc., which he forwarded to Otago Museum in 1875. 

 These were examined by Hutton, who m the foUowiog year 

 published a description of the new species the collection con- 

 tained, and at the same time referred the Waihao greensands 

 to the Pareora formation. In 1879, v. Haast took exception 

 to the reference of the Waihao greensands to the Pareora 

 formation, and, detailing the sequence, showed clearly that they 

 underlaid the limestones belonging to the Oamaru formation. 

 In 1880, I examined the geology of the Waihao Valley, and 

 agreed with v. Haast that the greensands of the Waihao 

 Forks underlaid the limestones in the near vicinity, and differed 

 from him only in this, that I ascribed his Oamaru formation to 

 the Cretaceo -tertiary period. In 1884, Lindop arrived at the 

 same conclusion, as far as concerned the relative position of the 

 greensands and the limestones. 



In 1873, Professor Hutton expressed the opinion that our 

 young secondary and tertiary rocks are in many instances 

 deposits accumulated in the narrow valleys of a submerged 

 land ;'•'■ and in 1875 he argues that, after the close of the Eocene 

 period, these valleys were in some instances re-excavated and 

 others formed, within areas covered by cretaceous and upper 

 eocene deposits ; and, in Upper Miocene times, were 

 again filled with marine deposits. In this way he finds 

 the stratigraphy of some districts of the east coast of the 

 South Island very perplexing, and would have us believe 

 that the so-called miocene beds appearing to pass under the 

 upper eocene deposits in reality flanked them on the inland side, 

 or filled valleys excavated in them.t This theory, though it 

 obviated the necessity of grappling with a serious palseonto- 

 logical difficulty, led but to another, as it implied the existence 

 in cretaceous times not merely of the principal outlines of the 

 physical configuration of the country, but of many of the minuter 

 details, and at the same time the existence of a profusion of 

 fiords and islands along the coasts of eastern Otago and South 

 Canterbury during miocene times. Most other geologists 

 holding that the phenomena thus to be explained were capable 



• " Geological Beports," 1873-74, p. 37. 

 t " Geology of Otago," 1875, p. — . 



