230 Transactions. 



prominent is a massive and solid bed on the north of the station, which 

 rims out to the coast at a prominent rocky point to the east of the river- 

 mouth. The immediate coast-line at this point consists of large blocks 

 derived from this bed, and its continuation seaward is marked by a line 

 of submerged reef. Fossil remains are very common in this bed, specially 

 remains of Mollusca, and notably a flat sea-urchin (Arachnoides placenta), 

 but the rock is so firmly cemented that it is almost impossible to obtain 

 good specimens. 



This hard bed is primarily responsible for the shape of the ridge 

 known as Bill's Hill, which lies to the north-east of the Teviotdale Sta- 

 tion. Its peculiar position presents a somewhat difficult problem till it 

 is recognized that the hill is an anticline, and that it is flanked on the 

 north by a small syncline now coinciding approximately with the upper 

 valley of the Teviotdale Creek. The northern side of this creek is formed 

 of beds dipping to the south-east and rising to the north-west till they form 

 the prominent escarpment facing Mount Cass on its southern side. The 

 Bill's Hill anticline owes its preservation from denuding agents to the 

 protection of its upper surface by the layers of hard conglomerate which 

 covers it almost continuously, although individual layers are somewhat 

 discontinuous in their extension, one band being frequently replaced by 

 a slightly lower and parallel one on frequent occasions. Nevertheless, 

 the total effect is to cover the hill and protect it from active denudation. 

 The axes of both the anticline and its accompanying syncline run 

 approximately N.E.-S.W., but they peter out between the Teviotdale 

 Station and the river. It is possible, however, that they have exerted 

 some disturbing effect on the main structural anticline, which runs from 

 Mount Cass towards the river; and perhaps the curvature of its axis 

 is due to the coalescence of the two lines of folding as they are followed 

 to the south-west. A very complete examination of the locality is, how- 

 ever, necessary before the precise effect of each fold on its neighbour can 

 be determined. 



It will be observed that all the axes of folding enumerated above are 

 approximately parallel, and they are also parallel to the folds which 

 the Cretaceous and Tertiary series at Amuri Bluff and Kaikoura exhibit 

 so markedly. These folding movements have therefore extended well into 

 North Canterbury. Their presence in that locality, and also in the Tre- 

 lissick basin, described by McKay and confirmed by examination by the 

 present writer, suggest strongly that earth-movements connected with the 

 folding of the great alpine chain had probably not ceased even late in 

 the Tertiary era, although they were certainly more acute in the Kaikoura 

 district than further south, and were, besides, of a different order of 

 intensity and character from those primarily responsible for the forma- 

 tion of the great mountain-range. 



The thickness of the beds exposed in the gorge certainly exceeds 

 1,800 ft., and all through them, as well as in the underlying Grey Marls 

 and limestones, there is no sign of any discordance or dislocation other 

 than folding, with the exception of the local disturbance referred to on 

 page 228. The special importance of the absence of any evidence for a 

 physical break will be understood when the fossil content of the beds has 

 been considered. 



In many parts of the area the solid strata are covered with a veneer, 

 of greater or less thickness, of what are evidently river-gravels, in addi- 

 tion to the covering of recent marine shingle on the coastal plain. These 

 may have been derived from rivers which flowed over the country at 

 higher levels than now, of which there is abundant evidence in the downs 



