THE MOLLUSCA OF THE PAREORA AND OAM ARU 

 SYSTEMS OF NEW ZEALAND. 



By Captain F. W. Hutton, 

 Hon. Mem. Linn. Soc. of N. S. Wales. 



The correlation of the Tertiary rocks of Australia with those of 

 New Zealand is one of considerable interest, but one on 

 which, as yet, no well grounded opinion has been given. 

 As a contribution towards arriving at correct ideas on the 

 subject, I offer to the Society a list of the Mollusca of the 

 Pareora and Oamaru Systems in New Zealand, which are 

 probably of Miocene and Oligocene age. The list is by no 

 means complete as no catalogue of the large collections brought 

 to the Wellington Museum since 1873 has been published ; but it 

 is fuller than any previous list, as it includes, for the first time, the 

 Tertiary Mollusca in the Canterbury Museum collected by Dr. von 

 Haast, between 1862 and 1875, during his geological survey of 

 Canterbury, and those collected by myself in 1874-5 when I was 

 surveying Otago. The nomenclature also has been carefully 

 revised. 



The list contains 268 species, of which 184 are confined to the 

 Pareora System, 33 to the Oamaru System, and 51 are common to 

 both. But of this latter number a few are doubtful. Evidently 

 the two systems are closely related palseontologically, but they are 

 separated stratigraphically by an unconformity which is almost 

 always present. The Geological Survey divides the Pareora System 

 into upper and lower miocene, the blue clay of Wanganui being in- 

 cluded in the upper division. But I have elsewhere shewn that 

 this blue clay belongs to the Wanganui System (1), and, this being 



(1) Trans. N.Z. Institute, Vol. 18. The Wanganui System. 



