Hill. — On Distribution of Pumice. 299 



the air. Many specimens of fossil leaves are also to be met 

 with in the lignite beds, which are found in the lower part of the 

 section. With the kindly help of Mr. Hamilton, our Secretary, 

 I have been able to obtain some fair drawings of a few of th3 

 leaves found by me, and also of some from the pumice beds of 

 the Poverty Bay District. 



The pumice deposits, of what I have ventured to name the 

 Kidnapper section, pass underneath the Heretaunga Plain, and 

 they re-appear again at the back of Maraekakaho. At Red- 

 cliffe, near Taradale, six miles from Napier, the Kidnapper beds 

 are largely developed, the pumice beds being underlaid and 

 overlaid by conglomerate beds of a deep-red colour. These 

 pumice and conglomerate beds are seen to dip to the E. by S. 

 underneath the bed of the Tutaekuri Kiver, in the direction of 

 the Kidnappers. In the Kedcliffe pumice deposits a ruby-kind 

 of quartzite is found embedded here and there, and some mica 

 scales are met with at the junction of the pumice and con- 

 glomerate beds. From Maraekakaho, both north, west, and 

 south-west, the pumice deposits have an enormous development. 

 In the direction of Hampden and the Kuataniwha Plain they 

 cover the entire district, all the hills being composed of pumice 

 and shingle, alternated here and there with clays and an impure 

 lignite bed. The hills forming the watershed between Marae- 

 kakaho and Hampden, and which run southward along the east 

 side of the Kuataniwha Plain, opposite the Guavas station and 

 Hampden, and forming the left bank of the Manga-o-nuku 

 Stream, are composed of pumice, shingle, clays, blue sands 

 having a tinge of green, and lignite. These deposits correspond 

 to the Kidnapper middle and lower beds. These pumice beds 

 are seen to pass underneath the Kuataniwha Plain near the 

 Guavas station, and they are again met with in the Tukituki 

 Kiver, on the west side of the plain, just below the crossing 

 leading from Te Onga-onga to Makaretu. The beds at this 

 point are dipping to the south-east. Six miles further up the 

 river the pumice beds are again exposed, dipping south-east, 

 and having their strike in the direction of Ashley-Clinton. At 

 this place the pumice and conglomerate beds form the tops of 

 the highest hills in the district. The pumice is fine in texture, 

 but is underlaid by coarser pumice-sands and pebbles, inter- 

 mixed with angular sandstone grit. About nine miles further 

 to the south by west, is the Scandinavian settlement known as 

 Norsewood. The height of this township is something like 

 1,300 feet above sea-level, and until taken up for special settle- 

 ment purposes the district formed a part of the Seventy-mile 

 Bush. Here shingle lies immediately underneath a poor soil, 

 and below the shingle come the characteristic conglomerate and 

 pumice beds of the Kidnapper section. The lignite bed is also 

 met with, it being exposed in most of the creeks in the whole 



