460 Transactions. 



kindly informs me that he sent the specimens to the specialist M. Lissajous, 

 who reports, " Les belemnites appartiennent au genre Neohibolites Stolley ; 

 elles sont assez voisines de N. ewaldi Straubeck, de l'Aptien, et appartien- 

 nent probablement au meme niveau (c'est a dire, cretace inferieure)." 



Still further support for the Cretaceous age of these lower beds is found 

 at Chatton, where Mr. R. A. Sutherland, M.Sc, has found a species of 

 Nerinaea in a sandstone associated with the coal-beds. In that locality, 

 as at Wangaloa, the Cretaceous genus is associated with a high proportion 

 of well-known New Zealand Miocene species, some of which extend to the 

 Recent fauna. Further, as stated elsewhere in this volume, at Hampden, 

 eighty miles farther north, in beds rather higher in this series, there are 

 again the Cretaceous genera Trigonia, Avellana, Dicroloma, or some other 

 apporhaid, and Volutoderma. 



This belemnite was first classed by Hector as Belemnites lindsayi (N.Z. 

 Geol. Sur. Rep. 1873-74, p. xiii). Afterwards this name was treated by 

 him as a synonym of B. australis Phillips {Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 10, 1879, 

 p. 487). Thus in closely associated strata of this region we have the follow- 

 ing species belonging to typical Cretaceous genera : Belemnites lindsayi 

 Hector, Pugnellus australis Marshall, Nerinaea sp., Dicroloma sp., Voluto- 

 derma, sp., Trigonia neozelanica Suter, Trigonia n. sp., Perissolax obtusa 

 Marshall. In addition, the following species are distinctly of Lower Eocene 

 age — viz., Gilbertia curta Marshall, G. paucistriata Marshall, G. tertiaria 

 Marshall, Heteroterma zealandica Marshall, Nucleopsis major Marshall, and 

 Belophos n. sp. 



M. Cossmann, the distinguished author of the Essais de Paleochonchologie 

 comparee, has been good enough to examine specimens of Pugnellus and 

 Avellana. He writes as follows : " Vos deux Avellana, de Wangaloa et 

 Hampden, sont a la base du Tertiaire d'apres mon opinion. Ce ne sont 

 d'ailleurs pas des Avellana mais des Gilbertia, genre represents en Europe 

 par une espece paleocenique du bassin de Paris et peut-etre aussi a Aix la 

 Chapelle dans le Maistrichtien superieur. Quant a Pugnellus australis, la 

 couche dont il provient doit etre au dessous de celle a Gilbertia — c'est a 

 dire, dans le cretace tres superieur." 



In the three localities here mentioned- — Wangaloa, Chatton, and Hamp- 

 den- — the well-known Tertiary species Cucullaea alia and Bullinella enysi 

 occur, and in each of the localities there are a large number of other 

 Tertiary species that have a wide occurrence in New Zealand, such as 

 Dentalium solidum, Siphonalia nodosa, Bathytoma sulcata, Fulgoraria cor- 

 rugata, and Epitonium rugulosum lyratum. The occurrence of such species as 

 these forbids us from placing these beds in a different geological system from 

 others that contain the same forms but have no Cretaceous species. Such 

 a separation is particularly inadvisable when the stratigraphical evidence is 

 strongly against such separation, as has already been shown to be the case 

 in connection with the younger rocks of New Zealand. 



The age of the Wangaloa beds must obviously be very old Tertiary — 

 perhaps even older. Mr. C. T. Trechmann, who collected them with me, 

 thinks that the age should be regarded as Maestrichtian, or even Danian,. 

 but certainly higher than the Selwyn Rapids beds, which are of Senonian 

 age. Further collecting and more complete identification of the fossils are 

 necessary to finally settle this point. 



