286 Correspondence — Professor P. Marshall. 



Wlien, some time ago, I consulted two imaginary charts, by 

 Mr. Jukes-Browne, of Pleistocene times,^ I found that in neither 

 did the sea approach the Torbay raised beaches ! A sea-beach 

 without a sea is impossible. 



Mr. Lamplugh, in tlie current number of the Geological Magazine, 

 seems to have exactly defined the present position of this raised 

 beach question. He observes that "the correlation has still an 

 element of uncertainty".^ That is all I at present maintain, viz., 

 that the age of these Torbay beaches has not been "fairly well 

 settled ". 



If Mr. Jukes-Browne can justify his charge, by reference to any 

 passage of mine in the Geological Magazine (since 1890), that I am 

 a "needless fault-finder", I will give £5 to any hospital or to any 

 scientific object that you, Sir, may kindly indicate. 



A. R. Hunt. 



SouTHWOOD, Torquay. 

 May 3, 1913. 



THE 'CEETACEO-TERTIARY' OF NEW ZEALAND. 



SiE, — I noticed that in the November number of the Geological 

 Magazine there was a further criticism of my work on the younger 

 rock sj'stem of New Zealand. At this distance it is, I think, inadvisable 

 to detail at great length the exact features of local stratigraphy. 

 This I intend to do in the pages of the Transactions of the New Zealand 

 Institute, the publication in whicli my first article on this subject 

 appeared. I hope, however, that you will find space for a reply on 

 a few of the more general aspects of the question. 



1. Insistence is laid on the fact that below the Oamaru Limestone 

 Cainozoic fossils only have been found, while beneath the Amuri 

 Limestone Cretaceous fossils occur. As a matter of fact, in all those 

 districts where the Amuri Limestone has been found there is a thickness 

 of 500 to 2,000 feet of strata that have up to the present time yielded 

 no fossils, while the Amuri Limestone itself is almost destitute of 

 fossils, though those that have been found are of Tertiary aspect. 



The explanation that I have put forward, viz. continuous rapid 

 depression until after the deposition of the limestone, makes it evident 

 that in off-shore and in relatively low-lying localities the deposition 

 of limestone would commence far earlier than in localities that were 

 submerged only slightly before the climax of depression. The thick 

 deposits of foraminiferous ooze which is the nature of the Amuri 

 Limestone must, therefore, represent not merely in its upper part 

 the same horizon as the Oamaru Limestone, but in its lower part 

 a considerable thickness of subjacent beds, be they conglomerates, 

 greensands, or mudstones. One may add, too, that the latest critical 

 statement (1892) of Tate classes the Echinoderms of the Oamaru 

 Limestone (twenty-six species, all extinct) as Eocene with a Cretaceous 

 complexion. 



^ The Building of the British Isles, 1888, pp. 294, 300. 

 - Geol. Mag., 1913, p. 239. 



