266 Transactions. — Geology. 



of either. Crcpidula striata, Dentalium conicum, and Pecten 

 venosus are, so far as is known to me, confined to the Pareora 

 System (including the Hutchinson's Quarry beds) ; while the 

 other 4 are confined to the Oamaru System. But of these 

 last, Pinna distans is doubtfully identified, while Pectin beethami 

 var. /3, and Amphidotus sulcatus, must certainly have come from 

 the limestone ; thus leaving (of the distinctive fossils possibly 

 coming from the greensands) Dentalium tenue belonging to the 

 Oamaru System, against 3 species characteristic of the 

 Pareora System. Consequently, if I had admitted these species 

 into my list they would have strengthened my argument : but 

 I omitted them, because there is no evidence that they have 

 been found in the greensands. Certainly these omitted species 

 do not aid Mr. McKay in his contention that the greensands 

 are of Lower Cretaceo-tertiary age, for two of them are recent 

 species, and Sir James Hector says that the Cretaceo-tertiary 

 formation contains no recent species at all ; :,: indeed living 

 species of Mollusca could not be expected to occur in beds of 

 that age. 



I do not care to pursue Mr. McKay further, as I am content 

 to leave it to future geologists to judge between us; but it 

 seems necessary to state again that, notwithstanding Mr. 

 McKay's opinion, both Valuta corrugata and Pleurotoma fusi- 

 formis are in the collection made by Sir J. von Haast from 

 the greensands at Waihao Forks ; and as I originally described 

 both these species, I ought to be at least as competent to 

 recognise them as is Mr. McKay, who, although an excellent 

 collector, has not yet shown any great acquaintance with 

 palaeontology, and who, as in the present case, carefully avoids 

 giving a list of the fossils which he has himself collected. 



One other mistake of Mr. McKay's may be corrected. He 

 says: "Beyond all question, the greensands underlie the Waihao 

 limestone;! and as explanations of the contrary view, islands 

 and fiords without number, crush, faults, contortions, and, m 

 short, all that might render the geology of a district compli- 

 cated and obscure, are invoked in vain. Not merely do the 

 sections specially examined show this ; the general structure 

 of this district, and that of all Southern Canterbury and North- 

 eastern Otago. points to the same conclusion: and it is rare, 

 almost never, that the Pareora rocks rest on other beds than 

 those of Upper Eocene or Cretaceo-tertiary age" [loc. cit., 

 p. 439). Really, Mr. McKay's memory must be very bad, 

 for he has evidently forgotten that in the map winch illustrates 



* "Quar. Jour. Geol. Soc. of London," vol. xxxii., p. 55, and " Guide to 

 the Indian and Colonial Exhibition, N.Z. Court," 188G, p. 55. 



t There are two greensands at Waihao, one of which, no doubt, under- 

 lies the limestone, but it is not the one iu question, which contains Pareora 

 fossils.— F. W.H. 



