Fox. — The Waitemata Series. 479 



and continued down to the Lower Miocene period." In my 

 opinion, Mr. Park is here confusing two beds; but, be that as 

 it may, he seems to consider that the Coromandel Peninsula 

 eruptions began at the horizon of the Cheltenham breccia, but 

 lasted for a long while, and this is all that is required in the 

 supposition that the Parnell grit came from Coromandel. 



Its Age. 



The most interesting question relating to the Parnell grit 

 is its stratigraphical position. Most observers have supposed 

 that the grit overlies the Orakei greensand, but apparently on 

 no very good evidence. Captain Hutton contributed a paper 

 in 1884 to the New Zealand Institute in which he concluded 

 that the relative position of the beds was uncertain, and he 

 even wrote : " To the east of Parnell, between Resolution 

 Point and Hobson's Point, there is a break across Hobson's 

 Bay in which nothing definite can be seen. It is therefore 

 quite impossible to say from stratigraphical evidence whether 

 the beds at Hobson's Point are above or below the Parnell 

 grit.* It is not really at all impossible, and it seems to me 

 that Captain Hutton implied as much when he assumed that 

 the Hobson's Point fossiliferous greensand is an extension of 

 the Orakei bed. No one doubts this ; but it is evident that if 

 the greensand may be traced from Orakei to Hobson's Point 

 it may be traced farther, and thus new evidence may be 

 supplied. The Parnell grit may also be found cropping out 

 farther east. As a matter of fact, both the greensand and the 

 grit do occur at many localities eastward. 



Before giving this new evidence it will be well to review 

 Mr. Park's opinion, which was the reverse of that here 

 adopted. Considerable support is given to Mr. Park's opinion 

 by the sections which he published, but I am unable to 

 agree with Mr. Park's interpretation of the stratigraphy. The 

 dips are, in my opinion, sometimes the reverse of those given 

 by Mr. Park, who wrote in 18891 : " As bearing on the rela- 

 tion of the Parnell grit to the Orakei Bay bed, I may men- 

 tion that during my last visit to St. George's Bay I found a 

 number of Orakei fossils in the flat irregular calcareous gritty 

 cornstones at the foot of the cliff on the west side of the bay. 

 These cornstones are only exposed at low water, and occupy a 

 position some 15 ft. or 20 ft. above the Parnell grit. The 

 fossils collected at D were Pecten fischeri, Vaginella, Orbito- 

 lites, and a number of small corals. The occurrence of Orakei 

 Bay fossils in this position would tend to show that the 

 Parnell grit is inferior to the Orakei Bay beds; but, if the 



* Trans. N.Z. Inst., 1S84. 

 t Trans. N.Z. Inst., p. 399. 



