4 NEW ZEALAND PALEONTOLOGY. 



ing speciality which is essentially its own. This is the posses- 

 sion of fossil Hydroids of great beauty and variety. Amongst 

 them is a second species of Sporadopora, a genus hitherto only 

 known from a single specimen dredged up by the "Challenger," 

 300 miles off the Rio de la Plata, from a depth of 600 fathoms. 

 These Hydroids — or, at least, certain peculiar genera of the 

 families Milleporida and Stylasferidce — are restricted to the 

 southern seas. There is one common form living on the New 

 Zealand coast to which I formerly gave the name of MiUepora 

 undulosa. This I have removed to a new genus, of which there 

 are two representatives among the fossils, which I distinguish as 

 Cylindropora. There is also a true species of MiUepora, which is 

 very like certain tropical forms, showing that in Tertiary times 

 the genus was not so restricted as it is now. 



The whole evidence of the fossil corals shows a climate and 

 an isolation in the New Zealand fauna not very different from 

 the conditions which exist now. The large FlabeUa are only now 

 found in warmer seas, accompanying quite a different series of 

 corals from that which we find fossil in these beds. The fauna 

 generally, as far as I liaA^e seen it, is not that of a Warm sea, nor 

 like what we should find on the warmer extratropical portions 

 of the Australian coast. 



I turn now to the Bryozoa, where we find a much larger 

 correspondence with Australian fossils: in fact, the greater 

 portion are the same in the two places. I have no doubt that, 

 from the fossil corals, the formation at Oamaru (Hutchison's 

 Quarry beds) and that of Mount Gambler were contemporaneous. 

 The Oamaru strata are regarded as Upper Eocene by Dr. Hector ; 

 which is very nearly the age assigned to the Mount Gambler 

 formation by Professor Tate, the best authority on the ages 

 of the Australian strata, his strata being perhaps a stage 

 younger. In the newer formations it is very remarkable to 

 find two, and perhaps three, species of Fasciculipora, a genus 

 thought to be peculiarly characteristic of the European upper 

 tertiaries. 



The extraordinary correspondence of the strata at Oamaru 

 and those of Mount Gambler points to a prevalence of a peculiar 

 kind of life on the earth over very large areas at the same period. 

 At Mount Gambler there are immense masses of limestone, all 

 composed of fossil Bryozoa with very few shells, and the corals 

 always occur as casts. Precisely the same features are visible in 



