Gilbekt. — Geology of Waikato Heads District. 



105 



all the higher beds in this formation, plant-remains are abundant, though 

 rarely in other than fragmentary form. Tree and fern trunks and large 

 roots are abundant, more particularly two miles south of the Heads in a 

 very thick bed of concretionary sandstone. 



The following is roughly the sequence, in ascending order, of the beds 

 as shown in the coast sections from south of the Huruwai Stream to the 

 Waikato Heads. (See Plate XXI, fig. 2.) 



(1.) 700 ft. of dark marly shales containing marine fossils (Cox, p. 20), 



and herein spoken of as the " belemnite-beds."* 

 (2.) Hard grey sandstone with shaly beds. 



(3.) Thick beds of concretionary sandstone, containing tree-trunks in 

 abundance, amongst which could be recognized some resembling 

 tree-ferns. These beds thin out laterally, rapidly giving place 

 to thin bands of shale and sandstone. 

 (4.) Shales with bands of a hard, shiny, black, impure coal 1 ft. and 

 1| ft. thick, dipping seaward at an angle of 35° to west. These 

 outcrop on the strike coast near Hanwai Stream. 

 (5.) Alternating beds of hard shale and sandstone, the shale bands 

 outcropping at Oruarangi Point, about five miles south of Waikato 

 River, being rich in well-preserved plant-impressions. 

 (6.) Bands of shale interbedded with sandstone and containing thin 



coaly bands. 

 (7.) Fine conglomerate. 



(8.) Coarse sandstone, stream-bedded, with large fragments of wood, 

 outcropping on the beach south of Huruwai Creek. 



Fig. 7. — Observed section north of Hanwai Creek. Height of section, 200 ft. ; 

 length, 100 yards. Mesozoics (strike 25° west of north, dip 35° to 

 west) overlain by horizontal Notopleistocene beds. 



Though the strike of the main axes of the folds is 30° west of north, 

 it occasionally changes locally to north-and-south and east-and-west, for 

 there is much local distortion, notably in the axis of the syncline where 

 the Waimate Stream enters the Waikato River, about two miles above its 

 mouth. 



* A similar series of shale -beds, though unfossiliferous, appears at the top of the 

 watershed between the Okahu and the Moewaka Streams, where deep weathering has 

 increased their friability. 



