Reports & Proceedings — Geological Society of London. 183 



of the group of Spiriferina fragilis, Schlotheim. It is concluded that 

 the Kaihiku fossil horizon is either late Middle or early Upper Trias, 

 and the great unfossiliferous series below it represents the Middle 

 and possibly Lower Trias. 



The most highly fossiliferous division is the Carnic — the Oreti 

 and Wairoa Series of New Zealand geologists. Several Ammonites 

 occur, among which Discophyllites cf. ebneri, Mojsisovics, is found in 

 the Carnic and Lower Noric of the Himalayas. The Halobice include 

 S. ziUelijliiiidstrom, a Spitsbergen fossil, together with H. hovhstetteri, 

 Mojsisovics, and H. austriaca, Mojsisovics. Several of the Carnic 

 fossils show affinities with European Alpine forms, and can be used 

 for purposes of correlation. 



The Noric horizon, the Otapiri Series in part, is represented by 

 felspathic sandstones containing immense quantities of Pseudomonotis, 

 a genus which characterizes the Noric in all the Circum-Paciflc 

 Trias. Ps. richmoncliana, Zittel, is known only from New Zealand 

 and New Caledonia; but the author found the Asiatic, Siberian, 

 and Japanese form Ps. ochotica, Teller, in all its varieties, in very 

 high Noric beds near Nelson. 



The Bhsetic, the upper part of the Otapiri Series of local geologists, 

 comprises a great thickness of sandy and pebbly beds. Its fossils 

 include an extremely alate Spiriferina and a group of specialized 

 bisulcate Sph'igerids. An Arcestid of Bhsetic aspect was collected 

 high up in these beds at Kawhia. 



Forty-seven genera and species of molluscs and Brachiopods are 

 recorded in the present paper, of which three genera and forty-one 

 species are regarded as new. 



The Brachiopods are of considerable interest, and exhibit phylo- 

 gerontic tendencies in several of the groups as they approach 

 ■extinction. 



The affinities of the New Zealand Trias with that of the Malay 



Archipelago, and especially of New Caledonia, is discussed ; and it 



is shown that the faunal transgression which occurred over those 



regions, at or shortly before the commencement of Upper Triassic 



■ times, extended also to the area now occupied by New Zealand. 



In the discussion which followed, the author stated that the true 

 relationship of the Mount Torlesse Annelid Beds was still one of the 

 unsolved problems of New Zealand geology. The question of their 

 stratigraphy is discussed by McKay and others, and the evidence 

 seems to show that they form the upper part of the Maitai Series. 

 The Annelid Beds have not been traced in the Nelson district, the 

 ■classical area of the Maitai Series ; but he had himself found a piece 

 of annelid-like tube in the Maitai Limestone of the Wairoa Gorge, 

 accompanied by Zaphrentis and Permo-Carboniferous Brachiopods. 



He did not think the Mount Torlesse Annelid Beds in any way 

 equivalent to the Yakutat Slates of Alaska, as he had shown that 

 the large bivalve in the Maitai Argillites overlying the Limestone 

 near Nelson, formerly supposed to be Inoeeramns, is apparently 

 identical with Aphanaia, de Koninck, of the Permo-Carboniferous 

 of New South Wales. 



Inoceramya, Ulrich, of the Yakutat Slates, is a shell of the 



