from New Zealand. 297 



that show sections of Conchothyra and other fossils on the weathered 

 surfaces. These concretions are extremely hard in places. 



At the Rapids the fossils are very badly preserved in the softer 

 rock, but the harder portions exhibit many sections of well-preserved 

 fossils on the waterworn surface, but the rock is so hard that 

 a hammer and chisel are of little use. On one visit, however, 

 I employed a man to put some half-dozen shots of gelignite into the 

 most likely-looking places, with the result that a large quantity of 

 rock was broken up and became available for collecting. 



The fossils show some unequal distribution in this bed, and 

 Conchothyra, Ap lustrum, and other forms occur in little clusters or 

 nests. Lamellibranchs and Gasteropods are the chief fossils, but 

 scales and bones of fish also occur, the former rather plentifully. 

 I was fortunate in obtaining two Ammonites and a Belemnite, neither 

 of which seems to have previously been recorded from this locality, 

 and which establish the Mesozoic age of the beds beyond question. 

 I collected a large number of Lamellibranchs, but as Mr. Woods has 

 described those of the old Survey collection from this locality I await 

 the appearance of his memoir before I describe them or record any 

 new forms there may be among them. 



Waipara Gorge, 



In the Waipara Gorge, about 35 miles north of Christchurch, there 

 is a glauconitic sandstone full of marine shells a very short distance 

 above the local base of the Cretaceous and below the well-known 

 concretionary greensands with Saurian bones. Some of the fossils 

 are very much rolled, as though it had been an old shore-line, but 

 unfortunately they are badly preserved. Ostreea is very plentiful, 

 and there are many specimens of a shell I took to be Conchothyra 

 parasitica, but which turns out to be an apparently undescribed form 

 of Pugnellus. The Waipara Gorge affords the most important con- 

 tinuous section in New Zealand of the Cretaceous and Tertiary beds. 



Waimalcariri Gorge. 



This locality is about 40 miles west-north-west of Christchurch. 

 The station is Kowai Bush, and a section of Cretaceous beds resting 

 unconformably on semi-metamorphic greywackes and argillites of 

 uncertain age is exposed in a deep gorge of the river. The fossiliferous 

 band is not far above the junction, and consists of some 3 feet of 

 glauconitic greensand crowded with Conchothyra parasitica, the only 

 other fossil being an occasional badly preserved valve of Trigonia 

 Hanetiana. 



Wangaloa. 



This locality is on the coast about 35 miles south-west of Dunedin, 

 and forms part of the Kaitangata Coalfield. Fossils occur in a 

 calcareous sandstone with some glauconite. Professor Marshall has 



a bed of blackish-grey calcareous shale which shows no trace of cone-in-cone 

 structure. I noticed in some places that where the concretions had been 

 affected by subsequent pressure in the bed the action of the pressure tended 

 to obliterate again the cone-in-cone structure in the outer layer of the 

 nodules. 



