92 PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS — SECTION C. 



of the last great series of crust moivements. This latest move- 

 ment has been termed the Kaikoura orogeny by Cotton (1915), 

 and closes the Notocene period. 



The coastal regions of South Canterbury and Otago have been 

 very extensively studid during the last decade. The 

 oldest beds are those of Shag Point. McKay (1887) showed that 

 over a basal series of conglomerates about fifteen hundred feet 

 thick and followed by coal-seams, there rested a series of mud- 

 stones containing Gonchothyra jyarasitica and some belemnites, 

 which we may consider as being of Senonian age. It is overlain 

 by a thick series of mudstones with septaria, and these are followed 

 by glauconitio mudstones, termed by Marshall the Hampden 

 Beds, which we must consider presently. 



Sixty miles southward from Shag Point, at the north side of 

 the mouth ot the Clutha, is the Kaitangata coal-field. Upon a 

 great thickness of sandstones containing the coal measures. Hector 

 (1891, p. Ixiii.) discovered a thin band of extremely fossiliferous 

 Bandy limestone, the fauna which he considered as older than that 

 at Oamaru, and compared it with that of the beds of Hampden 

 and Waihao. This Marshall has ttudied with great care (1916-17), 

 terming it the Wangaloa fauna. He has recognised over fifty 

 forms, of which only eight per cent, are Recent. The presence 

 of Cretaceous types such as I'ugneUus {Struthiolaria ?) and 

 Perissolax; and the Paleeecene genera Heteroterma and Gilbertia, 

 together with genera well represented in higher Tertiary beds, 

 shows the interesting transitional character of the fauna. Thom- 

 son considers that it may be approximately coeval with the Amuri 

 limestone, and clae^ses both formations under the stage-name of 

 "Kaitangatan," originally suggested by Park (1910). At Brigh- 

 ton, between Kaitangata and Oanaaru, the coal measures are very 

 much less thick, and overlying them is a fragmental limestone 

 with indefinite belemnites and fragments of Pecten, Ostrca, and 

 Venericardia* Marshall (1917) correlated this with the Wangaloa 

 beds; Morgan (1916), followed by Grange (1921), thinks that it 

 must be older, probably Senonian, and considers that the came 

 beds extend up to the western suburbs of Dunedin, and are 

 separated by an erosion-interval, but not an angular unconformity 

 from unctuous mudstones, sandstones and marl, the last contain- 

 ing four species of sharks' teeth, and thirteen Foraminifera, which 

 Mr. Chapman considers to be " low in the (Tertiary) Serines." 

 Tentatively, Grf:nge has grouped these with the lowest marine beds 

 of Oamaru. The Hampden beds, above mentioned, Marshall 

 (1917-19-20) correlates with the Wangaloa beds. By assiduous 

 collecting ninety-three species have been found, of which eight 



* No furthpr work has Veen done in the intervening Tokomairiro Valley since Hec'^or (1891) 

 dpscrlb"d th" iirrs"nce ot a fossilifer-us black limestone of an azc comparable wi'h that assig -ed to 

 Kai'anaatan and Briahton limestone, but Morgan believes they are really considerably younger. 

 (Private communication). 



