Lower Tertiaries of the Moovahool Valley. 13 



elsewhere in the valley. We record 118 species from this 

 locality. 



For about half a mile below this the river bank exposes 

 ail almost continuons section of the clay bed, but this at last 

 disappears, and is overlain by the gravel wash which covers 

 the greater part of the valley. 



To the northward on the hill side bounding the valley at 

 (3) and (4), small exposures of the yellowish clay were seen, 

 i)ut only a couple of fossils were obtained. The hill side is 

 thickly masked by soil, principally derived as a pluvial wash 

 from the basalt above. In the places mentioned, however, 

 small gullies have exposed the tertiary rock, though the 

 exposures were so small that we could do no more than 

 satisfy ourselves that the beds were continuous in that 

 direction. Near Coghill's (see plan 2), the stream which has 

 hitherto held a general south-easterly course, bends away to 

 the southward. At this point, a very steep cliff is foi-med, 

 exposing a section, which attracted the attention of the 

 officers of the Geological Survey. At the base of the cliff 

 occur billowy hillocks formed by the weathering of a small 

 landslip. 



The geological survey sheet gives the following section : — 



Black loam, with estuary shells and 



nodules of limestone ... ... 8 ft. 



Lava ... ... ... ... 30 „ 



Loose sand ... ... ... 6 „ 



Sandy clays, with miocene tertiary 



fossils ... ... .. 56 „ 



Total ... 100 ft. 



This section, however, seems to need several modifications. 

 The upper surface of the basalt is wackenitic in character, 

 and passes up into the surface soil, and we could not find 

 any trace of the estuary deposit referred to. After a pro- 

 longed search, about a dozen specimens of shells were 

 discovered lying close to one another, on the face of the 

 slope towards the cliff. Tliese were all recent species, and 

 are not peculiarly estuary shells. Their colours were 

 perfectly preserved, and they did not appear to have been 

 long in the ix)sition in which they were found. The shells 

 were of species of large size, and no examples of small 

 shells were found. The height of the place above the sea 



