444 Transactions. — Geology. 



Shakespeare Road on the north, all the principal exposures of 

 the Napier series are to he found. I have already pointed out 

 the existence of a syncline at the junction of Coote Road with 

 Beach Road in connection with the lower limestones. If these 

 limestones are followed along the ocean side from Coote Road in 

 a northerly direction, a marl-bed will be seen to make its appear- 

 ance about half-way between Coote Road and what is locally 

 known as the First Bluff. This marl is exposed about 100 feet 

 above high water-mark, and where first seen is only a few feet in 

 thickness. It is readily distinguished from the overlying beds 

 and from the limestones by its yellowish straw-colour. A little 

 further on the marl thickens out rapidly, but at the point the 

 marl seemingly disappears, and the limestones are overlaid by 

 the reddish-coloured pumiceous clay sands — the loess, or brick- 

 earth, of Hutton. A little finiher to the north the marl again 

 reappears, and at the highest point in the island, immediately 

 above where the breakwater operations are being carried on, 

 the marl is seen to thicken out, in a distance of not more than 

 120 yards, from about 15 feet to more than 60 feet, and the 

 upper series of Napier limestones make their appearance, resting, 

 as they do, unconformably upon the marls, and bemg in their 

 turn overlaid by extensive deposits of brick-earth, pumiceous 

 sands, and black soils composed of vegetable matter, volcanic 

 dust, scoria, and pumice grit. Structurally, the upper Napier 

 limestones are quite unlike the lower ones, and, once seen, their 

 peculiar compact and dark shelly structure is readily distinguish- 

 able. At the time when the pumiceous clays, sands, and grits 

 were deposited, it would appear that denudation had washed 

 away a large proportion of the upper limestones and the under- 

 lying marls, and that the lower limestones, equally with the 

 marls and upper limestones, had become surface-rocks. 



Between Coote Road on the south-east and Taradale Bridge 

 on the south-west the lower limestones have undergone a large 

 amount of denudation, and in one place only is the marl to be 

 foimd, this being on the town side from the residence occupied 

 by Dr. Hitchings, and nearly opposite Holt's sawmill. Near 

 the Taradale Bridge there is a lai-ge exposure of the marls, and 

 the unconformity between the lower limestones and the marls 

 and between the latter and the youngest beds of the upper (?) 

 limestones is well defined. Near Mr. Glendiuniug's brickyard 

 the upper or higher marls become somewhat sandy in character, 

 as compared with those seen on the east and north sides of the 

 island, and in one place they are overlaid unconformably by a 

 remarkable bed of pure pumice, dipping to the S.S.E. at an angle 

 of about 40°, and occupying the place of the otherwise denuded 

 fossiliferous sands and craggy limestones. This pumice-bed is 

 the one, I imagine, referred to by Mr. McKay, in one of his 

 reports, as underlying the limestones. An inspection of the 



