Park. — Marine Tcrtiaries of Otago and Canterbury . 523 



chinson Quarry beds and partly to the Otekaike limestone, 

 which he regarded, and I think rightly, as distinct from the 

 Ototara (Oamaru) Stone. 



Bed 1, the Kekenodon beds of Mr. McKay, are shown by 

 him to underlie the Otekaike limestone conformably (section 

 on pp. 68 and 101 of the report). Bed 3, which he calls the 

 Wharekuri greensands, he refers to the same horizon as the 

 Waihao greensands, as I do now ; but in a section on page 64 

 he shows the greensands overlain unconformably by the cal- 

 careous sandstone the supposed equivalent of the Otekaike 

 limestone. 



I made a careful examination of the line of section referred 

 to, which is obscured with gravels, but was unable to find any 

 evidence in support of Mr. McKay's contention. He admits 

 the obscurity of the section, and, speaking of this supposed 

 unconformity, says, " In the section of these rocks sketched 

 at page 64 the unconformity between b and c is made per- 

 fectly apparent, and is, I believe, exactly as the section 

 would appear provided the obscuring gravels could be cleared 

 away."* Exactly so. The section merely represents his view 

 of what would be seen if the obscuring gravels were cleared 

 away — a view in conformity with the theory of the Geological 

 Survey, which supposes that the Mount Brown beds are of 

 later date than the Waitaki Stone. 



As a matter of fact the Tertiary beds in this basin are so 

 much faulted, and the outcrops so obscured by heavy deposits 

 of gravel, that it is impossible for any one to determine what 

 are the relations between the lower greensands and the cal- 

 careous shelly sands of the Mount Brown beds. The solu- 

 tion of this problem can, however, be found in the Kakanui 

 and Waipara districts, where the sections are so clear upon 

 this point as to leave no room for theoretical deductions. 



The shelly greensands with Kekenodon are exposed on the 

 banks of the Waitaki River, half a mile below the junction of 

 the Wharekuri Stream. Here they are lying almost horizontal, 

 and can be traced in that position along the river-bank for half 

 a mile. They also are seen near the top of the foothills run- 

 ning along the south side of the basin, forming conspicuous 

 bluffs and escarpments facing the river-valley. Here the 

 beds also lie horizontal. 



We have thus two parallel lines of outcrop, separated by 

 half a mile, one a few feet above the river-level, and the other 

 nearly 400 ft. above the river. 



The Wharekuri basin is mountain -girt, and manifestly ex- 

 isted before the deposition of the Tertiaries. The latter have 

 not been folded in the course of tectonic movements, and we 



* Loc. cit., p. 73. 



