380 Transactions. 



arrange the Cainozoic formations of New Zealand in a chronological sequence. 

 Thus the first year's collecting in these heds gave us no Epitonium, Cardium, 

 Papkia, Fusinus, or Mangilia ; while Murex, Latirus, and Struthiolaria 

 were poorly represented. 



The present list appears to be sufficiently complete to establish a definite 

 horizon, which stratigraphically lies almost directly on the Hutchinson's 

 Quarry beds, which in its turn admittedly rests on the Oamaru limestone. 

 The fauna appears to be characteristic of a depth of about 40 fathoms. 

 The incomplete filling of many of the larger shells with sediment, and 

 the uninjured nature of such shells as Murex, show that the sea-floor 

 was not subject to much disturbance. The fact that many shells are 

 broken must probably be ascribed to fish. The grains of glauconite, 

 which are quite frequent, point to slow accumulation and an extensive 

 shore-line situated many miles away. 



The number of species of Mollusca collected in this small shell-bed, 4 ft. 

 high and 6 ft. long, is more than one-seventh part of the number of the 

 Recent species of New Zealand Mollusca recorded in Cheeseman's Manual. 



Wharekuri. 



The locality from which we have collected at Wharekuri is on the bed 

 of the Waitaki River, about forty miles from the sea. The actual spot 

 is about (me mile below r Wharekuri, and on the opposite (or left) bank of 

 the river. Lithologically the beds consist of a marly greensand. and dip 

 about 2° to the north. There can be no doubt that they directly overlie the 

 Kehenodon beds of McKay, classed by him with the Upper Eocene.* They 

 are, in fact, identical with the fossiliferous horizon on the opposite bank of 

 the river, referred to by McKay. 



Hamilton subsequently showed that in the extreme southern portion 

 of this Tertiary basin the rocks are cut by several fault-planes. f From the 

 Kehenodon beds of McKay Hamilton obtained a good specimen of Aturia 

 ziczac var. a astral is. 



Park classed these strata as the equivalent of the Mount Brown beds, 

 the middle member of his Miocene system. J The whole series of Cainozoic 

 beds is certainly conformable, as shown by Park, though the large fault in- 

 serted by him is unnecessary. 



In the Wharekuri basin the lowest rocks of the Tertiary sequence are 

 quartz gravels, a fact that has considerable significance. The quartz is 

 undoubtedly derived from schist, and the area of schist rocks is now sepa- 

 rated from the Waitaki Valley by Mount Domett and the Kakanui Ranges, 

 with an average elevation of about 4,000 ft. 



The occurrence of the quartz gravels, therefore, practically proves that 

 the range of the Kakanui Mountains did not then exist, for in such a narrow 

 fiord as the present AVaitaki Valley would have been if the Kakanui Range 

 had then existed the floor must have been covered with detritus derived 

 from the slopes of the neighbouring range — that is, with material derived 

 from the waste of greywacke rocks — a deposit that is quite common in New 

 Zealand, and quite different from the nearly pure quartz gravels of which 

 the lowest Tertiary rocks are composed. 



* Rep. Geol. Surv., 1881, p. 67. 



t Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 36, 1904, p. 465. 



% Trans. N.Z. Inst,, vol. 37, 1905, p. 525. 



