496 Professor James Park — 



At New Brighton, near Dunedin, there is a remnant of the 

 Cretaceous Series consisting of an impure rubbly sandy limestone 

 underhtin by loose quartzose sands and interhedded with fireclays 

 and a seam of lignite. The marine bed contains many broken 

 unrecognizable shells and a true Belemnite (B. lindsayi). The 

 Cretaceous beds rest directly on the mica-schist, and are overlain 

 by the dirty greenish-coloured soft micaceous sandstones of the 

 neighbouring Tertiar}' coal series of Saddle Hill and Green Island, 

 the complete succession of which is as follows, reading downwards : — 



(a) Caversham sandstone (Ototara Stone). 



{b) Glauconitic sands. 



(c) Blue marine clays. 



{d) Dirty green micaceous sandstones. 



(e) Quartzose sands with a seam of lignite near the base. 



In an interesting paper on the geology of the Lower Waipara 

 Gorge ^ Mr. R Speight, one of Dr. Marshall's colleagues, describes the 

 occurrence of a Tertiary fauna in the beds overlying the grey marls 

 containing more than 3(i per cent of living species. According to 

 recognized standards the age of these beds should be, as he says, nn 

 Upper Miocene or Lower Pliocene. The grey marls consist of 

 a horizon of sandy clays lying between the Weka Pass Stone 

 and the Mount Donald Beds. Below the Weka Pass Stone we 

 have only a Cretaceous fauna. Does not this biological discordance 

 suggest a marked palseontological unconformity ? The stratigraphical 

 conformity is only apparent ; the paleeontological break is pronounced. 

 Mr. Speight, while still adhering to the stratigraphical conformity of 

 the Tertiary and Cretaceous Series, concludes with the significant 

 remark: "This statement [w re conformity] does not, however, 

 negative the existence of a palseontological break." 



The calcareous beds which form the higher members of the Oamaru 

 system are dominated by Brachiopods, Pectens, Echinoderms, Corals, 

 and Foraminifera. only a few of which are represented by living 

 species, while the underlying marine clays and sandy beds contain 

 a rich fauna of Laraellibranchs and Gasteropods, of which, as found at 

 Hampden, Ngapara, Black Point, Wharekuri, Waihao, Waipara, and 

 Weka Pass, from 25 to 30 per cent are living species. Of the few 

 species which range throughout the whole of the marine stages of the 

 Oamaruian are Pseudionusium huttoni (Park) and Cirsotrema browni 

 (Zittel). Tliese two beautiful species are scarce in the blue sandy 

 beds in which they first make their appearance, attain their maximum 

 development in the glauconitic sands, and make their last appearance 

 in the Ototara Stone, in which they are nowhere abundant. Their 

 discoverv in the Weka Pass Stone in the Waipara district as reported 

 by Dr. Thomson and Mr. Cotton cannot be regarded as proving that 

 the Weka Pass Stone is the time equivalent of the Ototara Stone. 

 What it does prove is that Captain Hutt'Ui was right in placing the 

 unconformity between the Oamaru and Waipara systems at the close 

 of the Arauri Limestone. Moreover, the shattered and undulating 



' E. Speight, "A Preliminary Account of the Lower Waipara Gorge": 

 Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xliv, pp. 221-33, 1911. 



