312 Essays. 
Belemnites, there being several species of Belemmite, but all belonging to 
the family of Canaliculati. These are the first specimens of these genera 
which have been discovered in the regions of Australasia.” 
“Secondary rocks may probably be found in some other parts of the 
West Coast, and occur, as I have been kindly informed by the Rev. A. G. 
Purchas, in the harbour of Hokianga, but everywhere of limited superficial 
extent.” 
To this short description of the secondary rocks, I can only add the 
possible secondary character of sundry limestones and sandstones on the 
east coast of the. Wellington Province, but in which no distinctive fossils 
have as yet been found. The southern limit of these is at the White Rock, 
Barton’s Station, and they extend, at all events, as far as the northern 
boundary of the Province of Wellington, occupying, with some decided 
tertiaries, which rest upon them, a breadth of about seven miles from the 
coast. 
Tertiary, OR Karwozorc FORMATIONS. 
By far the greater part of the North Island of New Zealand is covered 
by rocks of tertiary age. 
- The oldest of the tertiary rocks would appear to be beds of brown coal, 
with accompanying shales. It is necessary to observe that there are beds of 
lignite found in the newer tertiary sandstones, which may be defined as 
lignites, not brown coal. 
These brown coal and shale strata are » succeeded, in the Wellington 
Province, by strata of blue clay and limestone, with Cucullea singularis, 
of which beds this fossil is most characteristic. The blue clay is again - 
covered by a succession of strata of sandstones and arenaceous limestones, 
both being fossiliferous, and attaining in some parts a great thickness. 
Above these, again, a drift gravel is often found. In the Whanganui, 
Rangitikei, and other West Coast rivers, some of these tertiary strata are 
marked in a remarkable manner with numerous horizontal bands or lines of 
boulders, or coneretions surrounding boulders or some other substances, 
such as fossil shells. These boulders are generally either of igneous or 
paleozoie rocks. In the southern part of the island these tertiary forma- 
tions, or some of them at least, are found on both sides of the main range, 
lying generally horizontal or slightly inclined, and abutting on the Tararua 
and Ruahine ranges on both sides. They then stretch northward on the 
west side of the range until they reach, and become mixed with, the voleanic 
products of the interior, continue to the N.W. probably all through the 
Province of Taranaki (fringing Mount Egmont), into the Province of 
— oco tertiaries of which will be hereafter described. From the 
ne ee 
