THE GREAT MARLBOROUGH CONGLOMERATE 347 



(Cretaceous), and its correlation is suggested with "the high- 

 level shelly conglomerates at Amuri Bluff, "^ which are probably 

 Pleistocene. 



Some years later the same geologist found deposits of similar 

 type, which he regarded as parts of the same formation, at various 

 places in Eastern Marlborough. The most conspicuous and char- 

 acteristic of these are several outcrops in the neighborhood of 

 Kekerangu,^ that forming Deadman's Hill,^ and a long strip in 

 the Middle Clarence Valley.^ 



The beds exposed in Heaver's Creek, Kekerangu, are described 

 by McKay in the following terms: 



They are rudely stratified, at places showing that the beds are standing 

 nearly vertical ; in the lower part are enormous blocks of Amuri limestone and 

 masses of soft marly strata, which it seems impossible to convey any distance 

 and deposit in the position in which they are found. Saurian concretions from 

 the Amuri beds, and bowlders containing Awatere fossils, are also plentiful. 

 .... It is impossible to give any description which will convey a correct 

 idea of the pellmell manner in which the various materials of this conglomerate 

 breccia are mixed together. Well-rounded sandstone conglomerates are 

 confusedly mixed with angular blocks of all sizes up to 1 2 ft. or 1 5 ft. in diameter, 

 divided into thick beds by thin beds of sandy and clay beds, which themselves 

 are not evenly bedded, but twist and wind among the coarser materials as though 

 the beds had been thrown into undulations prior to their being upheaved and 

 subsequently brought into their present position by faulting, "s 



Hector^ mentions, in the same section, the most finely laminated 

 silts with fossil plants in the midst of the coarse conglomerate. 



Both Hector^ and McKay always regarded the conglomerate 

 as unconformable to the beds on which it rests, and it is thus 

 represented in all their sections illustrating structure in the Clarence 

 Valley and also at Deadman's Hill.** In all these cases, it is repre- 



^ Op. ciL, p. 191. 



^ A. McKay, Geol. Stirv. of N.Z., Rep. Geol. Expl. during 18S5, pp. 114-16, 1886; 

 ihid. {i888-8g), pp. 169-71, 1890. 



^Op. cit. {1886), pp. 116-17; ibid. {i8go), pp. 171-72. 



^Ibid. {1886), pp. 118-22; ibid. (1890), pp. 174-78. 



5 A. McKay, op. cit. {1886), p. 115. 



^ Sir James Hector, Geol. Surv. of N.Z., Progr. Rep. for 1885, p. xxxvi, 1886. 



' Ibid., p. xvi. 



* See, for example, Hector, op. cit., p. xxxv; McKay, op. cit. {1886), pp. 94, 95, 116. 



