38 Transactions. 



This view of the correlation was influenced by Park's interpretation of 

 the Oaniaruian, in which the Ototara stone {i.e., the Waitaki stone) was 

 considered as the closing member. In consequence, Morgan suggested 

 that the Blue Bottom formation must, if Park's views were correct, be 

 the equivalent of the Wanganui series. As a matter of fact, the Blue 

 Bottom contains an Oamaruian fauna, and, if the Cobden limestone be 

 really Ototaran, must represent the Hutchinsonian or the Awamoan, or 

 both stages. 



Morgan considered that the Kaiata mudstone and the Island sandstone 

 represent a lower horizon than is developed at Oamaru ; but the fossils 

 he enumerates contain a large number of well-known Oamaruian forms, 

 and only three — -viz., Cardium hrunneri, Kleinia conjuncta, and Schizaster 

 exoletns — which are unknown from the Oamaruian. On the evidence of 

 the marine fossils, then, it is unsafe to conclude that these beds are not 

 Oamaruian ; they may well be Waiarekan, so far as our present know- 

 ledge goes. The fact that an unconformity exists between these beds and 

 the Greymouth series hardly affects t}}e question, for there is no a 'priori 

 reason why an unconformity should not be present between certain stages 

 of the Oamaruian in some parts of New Zealand, although there is con- 

 formity in others. On the other hand, as we do not know what was the 

 marine fauna of the times immediately preceding the Waiarekan, it is 

 quite possible that it contained a large number of forms which survived into 

 the Oamaruian, and that the Kaiata mudstone and Island sandstone do 

 represent such an horizon. In the present state of our knowledge it is 

 unsafe to base any stage names on these rocks. 



The plant-fossils contained in the Brunner and Paparoa beds may yet 

 yield important evidence as to the position of these horizons relative to the 

 Oamaruian. Von Ettingshausen considered the flora of the Brunner beds 

 Cretaceous and that of Shag Point Tertiary, while Morgan has shown that 

 the flora of the Paparoa beds is more closely allied than that of the Brunner 

 beds to the flora of Shag Point. The following explanation of this tangle 

 may be suggested : Von Ettingshausen's correlation of the Shag Point 

 beds as Tertiary, and of the Pakawau, Wangapeka, Grey, and Brunner 

 beds as Cretaceous, was based on botanical comparisons with the floras of 

 Europe, and cannot be held to have weight against the evidence yielded 

 by the correlation of the overlying marine beds with those of other parts of 

 New Zealand ; but his correlation of the Pakawau, Wangapeka, Grey, and 

 Brunner plant -beds with one another may be accepted. The marine beds 

 overlying the Shag Poiiit plant-beds must be correlated with the Cretaceous 

 beds of the Waipara and Amuri Bluff district, and these plant-beds are 

 therefore Upper Cretaceous. The marine beds overlying the various West 

 Coast localities contain a marine fauna agreeing with or closely related 

 to the Oamaruian, and certainly Tertiary. The West Coast plant-beds 

 are therefore either Tertiary or Danian, and most probably Tertiary, but 

 certainly higher in horizon than the Shag Point beds. The flora of the 

 Paparoa beds as determined by Morgan shows them to be intermediate 

 between the Brunner beds and the Shag Point beds, as might be expected 

 from their position. They contain four species (viz., Podocarpus Parheri, 

 P. Hochstetteri, Dacrydivm prae-cupressinum, and Aralia Tasmani) hitherto 

 known only from Shag Point, and three others (viz., Quercus lonchitoides, 

 Fagus ninnissiana, and Cinnamonum intermedwim) which have been re- 

 corded both from Shag Point and from Tertiary localities, but only two 



