﻿Correspondence — Dr. Hector. 335 



swarming with life, myriads of fossil shells may be collected from the 

 cliffs, whilst still further on, at Hordwell, we have beds showing 

 that the land arose again, affording suitable conditions for the 

 growth of luxuriant palms, and was the haunt of the alligator, 

 turtle, and other reptiles, which are now confined to tropical 

 countries.* 



C0I^I^ESI'035^ID:BI^^CE. 



THE OTOTARA SERIES, NEW ZEALAND. 



Sir, — In the last received Geological Magazine for August Capt. 

 Hutton takes exception to my note appended to Mr. H. Woodward's 

 paper on the *' Fossil Crab of New Zealand." 



One of his criticisms I admit to be correct. No distinct Saurian 

 bones have been found on the West Coast. The error arose from 

 an oversight in correcting the press, as the remark under letter h 

 was (Saurian beds, Ammonites, etc.), by which I meant to indicate 

 the horizon in the East Coast section of the same formation, as 

 proved by associated fossils. 



His other criticism relates to the presence of Secondary fossils in 

 the Ototara group; but he evidently confounds this with his Oaraaru 

 formation, under which are included strata of both later and earlier 

 date, while localities are excluded where Secondary fossils are 

 found. Thus he places the Greensands of the Green Island Brown 

 Coal in his Oamaru formation, although they contain Belemnites, 

 Ancyloceras Bostellaria, and other Cretaceous forms. His Oamaru 

 Cape beds I consider to be Miocene, while the Upper Marls at 

 Amuri Bluff, which Capt. Hutton places in his Pareora or Miocene 

 formation, are the calcareous Greensands that form the upper part 

 of the Chalk formation, with Inoeeramusf and Pleuronectes ZittelU, 

 the latter found ranging through the whole series ; while from about 

 the middle of the section the humerus of Palceeudyptes autarcticns 

 has lately been found by Mr. McKay, making the third locality for 

 this fossil bird in New Zealand. Other cases of stratigraphical 

 confusion might be stated, showing that we have not yet acquired 

 sufficient data for classifying our later formations by per-centages of 

 fossils to the exclusion of stratigraphical evidence. 



Geological Suryey Office, James HeCTOB. 



"Wellington, lOth Nov., 1876. 



MR. MILNE ON FLOATING ICE. 

 SiK, — I am sorry that Mr. Milne should think that I made an 

 " unfair comparison " in testing the behaviour of the floating cone 

 he had figured, by means of a tetrahedron. " Comparisons are " 

 always "odious." What then must they be when they are "unfair"? 

 And I am the last who would wish intentionally to make unfair ones. 

 The truth is that I had not a cone, and so I took the solid nearest in 

 its proportions to Mr. Milne's figure, and I submit that the tetrahedron 

 was quite as like an iceberg as the cone ! 



1 See also Report of Mr. Gardner's Lecture in the January Number of the 

 Geol. Mag. (p. 23), " On the Tropical Forests of Hampshire. 



