36 



Transactions. 



Park described a continuous section on the sea-coast between Wanganui 

 and Patea, the beds of which are shown in the folhiwing table along with 

 his later groupings : — 



Park, 1887. 



Park, 1905. 



Park, 1910. 



(1) 



(2.) 

 (3.) 



(4.) 

 (5.) 

 (6.) 

 (7.) 



\ 



(8.) 



Wanganui beds — 



Upper sandy beds 



Lower blue clays 

 Kai-iwi blue clays 

 Okehu pumice beds 

 Okehu sandy shell beds 

 Nukumaru Rotella beds 

 Nukuniaru limestone . 

 Waitotara Coralline series — 



Brown micaceous sand- 

 stone 



Coralline beds 



Yellowish-blue sand-clays 



Whenuakura blue clays 

 Patea blue clays and brown sands 



t-Newer Pliocene 



Older Pliocene 



>^ Upper Miocene 



Wanganui series 



i Te Aute or Wai- 



" totara series 



-Petane series. 



Waitotara series. 



Awatere series. 



Amongst the fossils of the Waitotara Coralline series given by Park 

 in 1887 there are some extinct species not found in the higher beds, but 

 known from the Oamaruian ; some extinct species apparently not found 

 either in the Oamaruian or in the higher beds — e.g., Ostrea ingens ; and 

 some Recent species not known from the Oamaruian, but found in the 

 higher beds — e.g., Terebratella ruhicunda. This shows, if Park's identifi- 

 cations are correct, that these beds occupy an intermediate position 

 faunally between the Awamoan and the beds around Wanganui as seen at 

 Shakespeare Cliff, Castlecliff, &c. There are, then, at least two stages 

 represented in the above succession which are clearly superior to the 

 Awamoan, and may be safely named. For the lower stage I propose 

 '' Waitotaran," based on Park's " Waitotara Coralline series." For the 

 upper, '■ Wanganuian " io not available, as that name has been already 

 used by Park to embrace the whole of the succession between Wanganui 

 and Patea, and therefore includes the Waitotaran. The upper stage, to which 

 Hutton's Wanganui system was confined, is best known by the often- 

 described sections at Shakespeare Cliff and Languard's Blulf (Putiki), on 

 the latter of which Hutton based his Putiki series. In neither of these 

 localities, however, is the base of the upper stage represented, for it must 

 include at least the Kai-iwi blue clays, which are inseparable from the 

 blue clays of Park's Wanganui beds of 1887. I propose, therefore, to base 

 its name on Castleclift", from the point at which Park's section along the 

 coast commences. The limits between the Castlecliffian and the Wai- 

 totaran must be left vague until the fauna of the beds between the Kai-iwi 

 blue clays and the Waitotara Coralline series is better known. It is possible, 

 but not probable, that a further stage may be found necessary between the 

 Waitotaran and Castlecliffian. 



It must also be left to further research to decide whether any further 

 stages are necessary between the Waitotaran and the Awamoan. Park's 

 Awatere series of 1910, which occupies such a position, is not founded 

 on any definite set of beds in the Awatere district, and apparently pre- 

 supposes that only one stage occurs there. As I pointed out in 1913, the 



