4 ox HAUYNE-TRACHYTE AND ALLIED ROCKS. 



Penno-Carboniferous sedimentary beds, and intersecting 

 several l)ands of trachyte in its course. First it cuts a 

 12 ft. layer ; subsequently a 2 ft. band of the coarse 

 l)()rphyritic trachyte seen at surface (the miners' name for 

 this is '' mati:pie "), and near the end of the drive 12 to 15 

 feet of white trachyte rock is passed through, called 

 "diorite " ])y the miners, and referred to under that name 

 in the published reports of the company. It is important 

 to note that these bands or lava sheets are conformable 

 with the sedimentary strata, and v/e cannot entertain any 

 doubt of their geological contemporaneity. In this hill, 

 as in the entire region, considerable variety exists in the 

 different flows of these trachytes. Some are coarse in 

 texture, others are fine-grained and compact. Some of 

 them have their counterparts on the Mount Mary Hill 

 rising on the west side of Lovett. In particular the slabby 

 trachyte, distinguished by its large tabular felspars 

 (" magpie ") is found again at the Mount Mary mine on 

 the w^estern side of the valley, only there it is much 

 decomposed, and has an abundant development of epidote. 



The Mount Mary trachytes may be seen cropping out in 

 the quarry on the hillside in front of Harvey's Hotel at 

 Lovett, where they have been used for road metalling and 

 building purposes. At least two varieties are distinguish- 

 able in the quarry face — one a tough dense speckled rock, 

 the other a smooth porphyritic, somewhat fissile, stone of 

 a light bluish-grey hue, suggestive of a sodic lava. The 

 compact type contains a fair amount of epidote. Passing 

 up the hill to the west the rising ground above Mount 

 Mary mine exposes outcrops of several varieties of 

 trachytic rocks, which continue right through the hill to 

 the Lymington-Wattle Grove Road. Opposite Martin's 

 cottage on that road is a bold outcrop of a rather plutonic- 

 looking grey hornblendic rock, at first sight much 

 resembling syenite, but wdiich on microscopical exami- 

 nation we found to be an undoubted trachyte, with 

 beautifullv zoned felspars. 



There are good exposures of sections on the beach 

 between Lovett and Lymington, where the beds are lying 

 rather flat. On this beach we found additional evidence 

 of the contemporaneity of the trachyte with the Permo- 

 Carboniferous sediments. We discovered some fresh 

 syenite (augite-syenite) along this line, and specimens of 

 a similar rock and of an intrusive micaceous trachyte have 

 since been given us l)y the Government Geologist (Mr. J. 

 Harcourt Smith, B.A.), who collected them from the shore 

 at low-water, just south of the Lovett regatta-ground. A 

 very remarkable dioritic rock occui\s on Mr. Patrick 



