;il8 Dr. P. Mars/tall — Younger Rock Series of New Zealand. 



110 glauconite and very rarely any mollusca, but an abundance of 

 Foraminifera, and the Hutchinson Quarry Beds, which are nothing- 

 more than calcareous greensands above the Ototara Stone. Since 

 Professor Park admits conformity between the two beds at the 

 Waipara and between the Ototara and Hutchinson Quarry Beds at 

 Oumaru, and since its characteristic fossils are common to both, it 

 is obvious that he cannot object to tlie cori'elation of the two sei-ies, 

 Amuri Limestone with Ototara Stone ; Weka Pass Stone with 

 Hutchinson Quarry. This is the correlation which we have adopted, 

 so there must be now substantial agreement on this point also. 



Much insistence has been laid on these sections in Xorth Canterbury, 

 because they are perfectly clear and have been admitted as of ci'ucial 

 importance on all sides; Professor Park, for instance, says of it: "The 

 sequence of beds just enumerated is the most complete to he found in 

 any part of New Zealand, and for this reason the AVaipara must for 

 ever remain the typical localitj' for the study of the formations that 

 the)^ represent." ' 



Not only is there a complete conformit}" at Waipara, but also at the 

 Weka Pass 10 miles away, at Amuri Blulf 70 miles distant to the 

 north-east, and at Oamaru 200 miles to the south. I am perfectly 

 willing to admit tliat two formations of different ages may locally 

 show apparent conformity ; but conformity at places so widely distant 

 in such a similar rock succession cannot fail to convince any geologist 

 that the formations are strictly conformable. 



In your article of December, liowever, the ground is somewhat 

 sliifted ; for Kaitangata, Sliag Point, and Komiti Point are there taken 

 as localities illustrating unconformable stratigraphical relations. Of 

 tlie first of these it is only necessary to quote : "No actual contact 

 of the Cretaceous rocks and Tertiaries is anywhere exposed." ' 

 Obviously this unconformity is a matter of inference, and the district 

 is of no critical importance compared with the clear and continuous 

 sections mentioned above. 



At Shag Point it is stated in the article referred to that: "The 

 Tertiary rocks form tlie low bank of a brancli of the Shag liiver near 

 the mouth, well within the influence of tidal flow." Beneath the 

 diagram on p. 5413 it reads: "Calcareous sandstone ... as seen in 

 the north bank of Shag River." Search failed to reveal these beds on 

 the low banks of a branch of the river. They are, however, well 

 known to occur on the south bank of the main river. This is half 

 a mile away from the nearest exposure of the conglomerates of 

 Puke iwi tahi, and the intervening ground shows no rock exposure, 

 and its surface is covered with soil and pasture. On Puke iwi tahi 

 itself the dip is 70 degrees east at the base, and 15 degrees east at the 

 top. Four hundred yards from the top the beds when followed along 

 the I'idge have a strike that in this distance bends from north to 

 north-west, that is, through an angle of 45 degrees. One and a half 

 miles distant along the strike from the base of Puke iwi tahi the dip 

 is 75 degrees west in Little Puke. A quarter of a mile to tlie east of 



' Eep. Geol. Explor. of N.Z., 1887-8, p. 33. 

 - Geol. Mag., Dec. V, Vol. VIII, p. 544. 



