102 Transactions. 



lower part of the greensands, which are often of a concretionary nature. 

 In other localities a Tertiary fauna has been found in the upper part of the 

 greensands, though it usually happens that these strata are destitute of 

 fossils. 



The order of succession of the strata which is given here is, of course, 

 subject to no small variation. In particular, the greensands, which it is 

 well known require particular and special conditions of temperature and 

 currents for their formation, are not develojjed in some localities. In others 

 it may happen that thick beds of mudstone occur between the sands and 

 the limestone, and these are sometimes oil-bearing. In all localities as far 

 as known at present there is a considerable thickness of unfossiliferous strata 

 between the Cretaceous horizon and the lowest Tertiary horizon in which 

 fossils occur. 



The highly diverse classifications of the younger rocks of New Zealand 

 which have already been quoted clearly show that there is considerable 

 difficulty in harmonizing those details of stratigraphical and palaeonto- 

 logical facts that have been discovered. All of the classifications appear 

 to be ultimately due to the recognition of the fact that the coals of New 

 Zealand are clearly of different age in the various localities in which they 

 occur, for they are associated with different moUuscan faunas. It is 

 perhaps as well to state here some of the merits and demerits of each of the 

 classifications. 



(6.) Hector's Worl. 



The classification of Hector had its first appearance in the New Zealand 

 Geological Keports, 1876-77, pp. iii-iv, but its first comprehensive descrip- 

 tion was in 1886, in the " Outline of the Geology of New Zealand," prepared 

 for the Indian and Colonial Exhibition, held that year in London. On 

 page 55 it is stated, '* These strata constitute the Cretaceo-tertiary formation, 

 being stratigraphically associated, and containing many fossils in common 

 throughout ; while at the same time, though none are existing species, 

 many present a strong Tertiary facies from both the highest and lowest 

 part of the formation, but even in the upper part a few are decidedly 

 Secondary forms." 



His position is, however, more clearly stated in the New Zealand Geo- 

 logical Keports for 1890-91, p. 1. He there states, " Successive efforts 

 to prove the age of the beds by the fossils were disappointing, and led to 

 attempts to correlate the beds with their supposed equivalents by means 

 of stratigraphy and the sequence of the prominent lithological characters 

 of the various divisions of the strata constituting the Waipara formation. 

 Over wide areas a correspondence of the sequence in regular and varying 

 order was traced, and at very many places in both Islands these laeds 

 proving richly fossiliferous were largely collected from. But the palaeonto- 

 logical evidence over the whole of South Canterbury and Otago and on 

 the west coast of the South Island was apparently wholly in favour of the 

 Tertiary age of these beds ; while in the north-east, or Marlborough, dis- 

 trict of the South Island, and along the east coast of the North Island 

 from Cape Palliser to Cape Kidnappers, and from Poverty Bay to East Cape, 

 the evidence obtained from beds stratigraphically and lithologically the 

 same demonstrated their Cretaceous age." 



Other sentences on page li show clearly that Hector thought that no 

 unconformity separated his Cretaceo-tertiary from his Lower Greensand 

 formation. This extract clearly shows that an identical stratigraphical 



