Prof. J. Park — Tertiaries and Cretaceous, New Zealand. 541 



with which are associated seams of bi'own coal, fireclays, and other 

 terrestrial deposits, and ending with a bed of marine limestone. 



The Tertiary Series is extensively developed in both islands, and 

 wherever it is found all the members are present from the highest to 

 the lowest bed, except in North Canterbury, where the basal coal beds 

 are absent. Unfortunately there is only one place where all the 

 members of the Cretaceous succession are known to be present, and 

 that is at Waipara. 



The succession of the Lower Tertiary Series at Waihao, South 

 Canterbury, which may be taken as typical, and of the Cretaceous 

 Series as seen at Waipara, are shown below in tabulated form : — 



Lowee Tertiary (Oamaru Series). Upper Cretaceous (Waipara Series) . 



1. Limestone (Ototara Stone). Soft 1. Limestone (Weka Pass Stone). 



coralline, sandy. Hard, crystalline. 



2. Greensands, with Tertiary fauna. 2. Grey chalky limestone with Am- 



3. Sandy beds and sandstones, with monites (Amuri Limestone). 



Tertiary marine shells in great 3. Greensands, with Belemnites, etc. 



abundance, with 20-5 per cent 4. Sandy beds, with septarian con- 

 of living species. cretions containing Saurian 



4. Conglomerate, shales, and brown remains, etc. 



coal. 5. Conglomerate, shales, and brown 



coal. 



In the days of the Cretaceo-Tertiary theory the Weka Pass Stone 

 was believed to be the equivalent of the Ototara Stone, and this was 

 responsible for much of the confusion, for according to this view the 

 Weka Pass Stone was conformably underlain by beds that in one place 

 contained a purely Cretaceous fauna and in others a purely Tertiary 

 fauna, including a number of living species. It was more puzzling 

 still that the Tertiary facies appeared all over New Zealand while the 

 Cretaceous was confined to a few isolated patches. Moreover, thei'e 

 was never any mingling of the faunas. These anomalies created 

 constant misgivings in the minds of those most wedded to the theory, 

 with the result that many hypotheses were examined and fully 

 discussed by the field-geologists of the Survey, but all were rejected 

 as untenable. 



While still in the belief that there was one and not two series, we 

 frankly recognized that we were faced with an apparently insoluble 

 problem in the failure of the Tertiary fauna to invade the few isolated 

 patches occupied by the Waipara Series. The Tertiary fauna had 

 found time to spread from one end of New Zealand to another, 

 therefore slowness of migration could not be entertained as a satisfactory 

 explanation. 



I will now examine the evidences of unconformity as presented at 

 Shag Point, Northern Otago, Waipara in North Canterbury, and 

 Komiti Point, North Auckland. 



Shag Point District. — In this district we have a good development 

 of both the Lower Tertiary and Cretaceous Series lying side by side in 

 actual juxtaposition. The whole of the Tertiary Series is present 

 from the calcareous sandstone (Waikouaiti or Ototara Stone) down to 

 the basal conglomerates, while all the members of the Cretaceous 

 Series are present except the higher members, namely the Amura 

 Limestone and Weka Pass Stone. 



