Fox. — The Waitemata Series. 485 



must be deceptive. However we explain matters, it seems 

 certain, at any rate, that the grit is above the greensand. It 

 is, perhaps, possible that this bit of the sea-floor was above 

 water for a short time in the Miocene period, and that the 

 grit is really unconformable ; but I am inclined to think the 

 explanation lies in the proximity of the basalt vent. 



The grit forms the face of the cliff round the point, and 

 this is probably one of the best places near Auckland for see- 

 ing its structure. The zeolite veins are well developed in 

 particular. The fault is only inferred from the horizontal 

 position of the sandstone at B, as landslips have covered the 

 face of the cliff. 



There is one other spot at which light is thrown on the 

 relative positions of the grit and greensand — Maungamaunga- 

 roa Bridge. Mr. Park concluded from the fossils found here 

 that these greensands were the equivalent of the Orakei 

 greensand. I do not know at what spot exactly Mr. Park 

 found these fossils, but interbedded with yellow sandstones 

 and shales, and above the greensands, occurs an outcrop of 

 the Parnell grit, very much weathered and easy to miss, con- 

 taining Fascicutipora ramosa. 



It may, then, be considered as highly probable that the 

 Parnell grit is above the Orakei greensand, and even probable 

 that it is considerably above. This fixes the age of the grit, 

 since by a consensus of opinion the Orakei greensand is 

 classed as Miocene, the Geological Survey alone considering it 

 earlier. 



Professor Bupert Jones, who examined the Foraminifera, 

 thought them to indicate a " late Tertiary age " for the bed. 



Herr Karrer, in the palseontological section of the "Voy- 

 age of the ' Novara,' " made the bed the equivalent of the 

 Vienna basin — i.e., Miocene. 



Professor Martin Duncan identified them with the Mount 

 Gambier series in Australia — Miocene. 



Professor Hutton, the first of New Zealand palaeontolo- 

 gists, examined the evidence generally, and came to the con- 

 clusion " that the evidence, both stratigraphical and palseon- 

 tological, is altogether in favour of the Orakei Bay beds be- 

 longing to the Pareora system." 



Since these beds are almost universally classed as Mio- 

 cene, and from the Papakura limestone to the highest Waite- 

 mata sandstones the series apparently has no break, the 

 greensand may fairly, I believe, be put at about the middle of 

 that series. In that case the Parnell grit is Upper or Middle 

 Miocene. 



In dealing with the source and age of the grit I have 

 already had occasion to describe some of the outcrops. 



