Revieivs — Tertiary Beds in the Pareora District. 131 



IV. — The Succession of Tertiary Beds in the Pareora District, 

 South Canterbury. By M. C. Gudex. Trans. New Zealand 

 Inst., vol. 1, pp. 244-62, 1918. 



rpHE Pareora district lies about half-way' between Christen urch 

 J, and Dunedin on the east coast of the South Island of New 

 Zealand. The complete sequence of Tertiary beds includes repre- 

 sentatives of the Oamaru and Pareora series, with a total thickness 

 of about 1,250 feet. An enormous number of fossils have been 

 collected, and their detailed occurrences are tabulated at the end of 

 the paper. The lithological character of the beds is very variable, 

 including sands, clays, marls, and limestones, and at the base a series 

 of grits and conglomerates alternating with coal-seams. The coal 

 is apparently inconstant and has a dip of 60°, so that it seems 

 unlikely to be of commercial value : it appears to have been formed 

 in an estuary or bay and not by growth in place. 



V. — On the Age of the Alpine Chain of Western Otago. By 

 James Park. Trans. New Zealand Inst., vol. 1, p. 160, with 

 plate, 1918. 



rpHE Alpine chain of "Western Otago consists of folded rocks of 

 JL Lower Palaeozoic age, but deeply involved in the eastern folds 

 of the chain is a remarkable narrow strip of Tertiary strata which 

 can be traced for some 25 miles. This has been involved to a depth 

 of at least 4,500 feet. The beds consist of conglomerate, sandstone, 

 clay, and limestone with badly preserved fossils, the maximum 

 thickness being about 80 feet. The fossils indicate an Oamaruian 

 (Miocene) age, probably belonging to the upper part of this forma- 

 tion. This occurrence affords satisfactory evidence that the 

 mountain-building movements took place in post-Miocene times, 

 probably early Pliocene. 



YI. — Notes on the Geology of the Tubuai Islands and of 

 Pitcairn. By P. Marshall. Trans. New Zealand Inst., vol. 1, 

 pp. 278-9, 1918. 



rpHE Tubuai Islands are a scattered group situated near 23° S. lat. 

 _L and 150° W. long. Little is known of their geology, and 

 Professor Marshall has examined petrographically three stone imple- 

 ments brought thence: two of them are dense, rather acid basalts, 

 while the third is a rather coarse-grained olivine basalt. None of 

 them present any special peculiarities. An examination of a box of 

 rock specimens sent by the Chief Magistrate of Pitcairn revealed the 

 presence here also of fine-grained basalts, many being glassy and 

 probably of submarine origin. Most of them contain a good deal of 

 olivine, and are moderately basic, though less so than varieties 

 described by Michel-Levy, which were not represented in this 

 collection. 



