426 Transactions. — Geology. 



With reference to the first statement, it is not easy to believe 

 that either the Hon. W. Mantell or Mr. C. Traill mixed together 

 fossil and recent shells. Mr. Traill's collection is still in exis- 

 tence, partly in the Wellington Museum and partly in that at 

 Dunedin ; and, as most of the fossils are still in their original 

 matrix, it is easy to disprove Mr. McKay's statement in this 

 case. Mr. Mantell's collection is not in the Colony, but his 

 list does not contain any of the commoner shells found on 

 the coast. South of Hampden there is a raised beach with 

 recent shells (Section VI., /,j formed into a quartzose sandstone, 

 which, at first sight, might be supposed to pass below the clay. 

 The commonest fossils in it are Barnea similu, Mactra discors, 

 Paphiii spissa, Venus mesodesma, Veneriipis refexa, and Ostrea 

 eduUs : but as none of these genera, except the last, occur in 

 Mr. Mantell's list, he could not have made any part of his 

 collection here. The idea that a palaeontologist, having before 

 him a collection of cretaceous and recent shells, should, as it 

 were, strike a mean and consider the whole to be miocene — 

 although, of course, not a single characteristic miocene shell 

 would be among them — needs no refutation. 



To test the accuracy of these statements, I collected myself 

 for an hour or two, in the blue clay north of Hampden, at the 

 place marked "Fossils" in Section VI., with the following 

 result : — 



1. Ancillaria australis *10. Limopsis insolita. 



*2. Voliita corru'jata. 11. Ciicullcea, sp. (fi'agments). 



*3. Pleurotoma fusiformis. 12. Pecten hutchmsoni (right 



4. Turritella ambulacrum. valve). 



*5. Turritella ornata. 13. Pecten hochstetteri (? fi'ag- 



6. rroc/«/s(? impression only). ment). 



7. Dentalium mantelli. 14. Ostrea edulis. 



8. Venus stutchburyi. *15. Trochoci/nthus mantelli. 

 *9. Solenella fimiculata. 16. Notoci/athus pedicellalus. 



Of these 16 species, the three in Eoman are still living, 

 and the six marked with an asterisk are characteristic Pareora 

 (i.e. miocene) species. This is, I think, quite sufficient to show 

 that Mr. McKay is in error, but I will give a list of all the 

 fossils reported from this locality : — 



1. Aturia ziczac, Sowb. 



2. Fusiis australis, Quoy. and Gaim. 



3. Siphonalia nodosa, Martyn. 



4. Siplionalia nodosa, var. runoidea, Hutton. 



5. Cominella, sp. ind. 



6. Nassa tdtei, Tcnison-Woods. 



7. Ancillaria anstnilis, Sowb. 



8. Valuta pacijiea, Solander. 



9. Voluta corrugata, Hutton, 



