232 Transactions. 



In addition to the above, the following species are recorded by Haast 

 as occurring at the Lower Waipara Gorge ("Geology of Canterbury and 

 Westland," p. 321):— 



Cytheria enysi Hutt. 

 Venericardia intermedia Hutt 

 Mod tola albicosta Lam. 



Modiola sp. 

 Lima crassa Hutt. 



A careful comparison of this list with the list of present species of 

 Mollvsca found fossil given by Suter (Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 42, 1910, 

 p. 8) shows that more than 30 per cent, of the species given above are 

 now living in New Zealand seas. Although the list of Waipara fossils will 

 no doubt be greatly amplified by more careful search, the relative propor- 

 tion of species to those existing now is not likely to be much altered. 

 Judging from this percentage, the beds should be classified as Upper 

 Miocene or Lower Pliocene. 



A further comparison with the list of fossils found at the typical 

 Pareora locality, in South Canterbury, shows that of sixty-four named 

 species given in the Waipara list thirty-two are to be found in the lists 

 of species collected at Pareora given in Haast's " Geology of Canterbury 

 and Westland," in Park's paper " On the Marine Tertiaries of Otago 

 and Canterbury" (Trans. N.Z. Inst,, vol. 37, 1905, p. 530), and among 

 the fossils exhibited in the Canterbury Museum. This is at first sight a 

 somewhat small proportion, but the forms common to both include a very 

 large number of characteristic species, and it is possible that further 

 collection may bring about further accordance. In any case, the number 

 of characteristic genera common to both localities renders it a matter of 

 certainty that the beds in the Lower Waipara are contemporaneous with 

 those in the typical locality at Pareora. 



A further comparison with the list of the fossils collected by Park on 

 the Mount Donald escarpment (loc. cit., p. 540), and with the lists of 

 Mount Brown fossils given by Haast (" Geology of Canterbury and West- 

 land," pp. 306-11), and also bv Hutton in his paper on the " Railway- 

 cuttings in the Weka Pass" (Trans. N.Z. Inst,, vol. 20, 1888, pp. 261-62), 

 shows a certain amount of agreement of the Lower Waipara fossils with 

 those collected in the typical Mount Brown localities. There are, how- 

 ever, some differences, notably the absence of Brachiopods from the Lower 

 Waipara, in marked contrast to their extraordinary numbers at Mount 

 Brown. This ma}' be due either to the fact that the proper horizons for 

 these fossils have not been discovered in the Waipara, or that the condi- 

 tions for their existence or for their entombment were not favourable in 

 that locality when the beds were laid down. The accordance of the fossil 

 content is, however, sufficiently close to assign both sets of beds to the 

 same age, especially when the associated fossil species from other localities 

 of the same age are taken into consideration. The stratigraphical rela- 

 tions also, strongly support this conclusion. 



Since by far the greater number of the fossils enumerated in the list 

 can be collected on one horizon in the gorge — i.e., just above the Grey 

 Marls — it is reasonable to consider that the lowest beds intersected by the 

 river are of the same age as the Mount Brown beds, while the upper mem- 

 bers are probably of the same age as the Motunau or Greta beds, and the 

 conformity of the sequence in the gorge supports the opinion of Hutton 

 that the Mount Brown beds are the base of the Pareora system, and the 

 absence of any unconformity in the gorge also supports his contention 



