814 Essays. 
Hicks Bay, near the Bay of Plenty. This description will leave room for 
the tertiaries and probable secondaries, which, although forming ridges of 
an average height of perhaps 1,000 feet, or rather more, can barely be called 
mountainous, nor can they be considered as the continuation of the Southern 
Alps. 
In the Southern part of the island the general character of the tertiaries 
is as follows :— 
On the eastern side the upper beds are calcareous, the middle beds are 
arenaceous and argillaceous. 
On the western side the upper Whanganui beds are arenaceous, the 
middle calcareous and argillaceous, and the lower argillaceous. 
With regard to the Auckland tertiaries, Hochstetter writes as follows :— 
“The various tertiary strata are found for the most part in a horizontal 
position. A remarkable fact, from which we may conclude that even the 
numerous volcanic eruptions which took place during and after the period of 
their deposition had not power enough to dislocate the whole system, but 
merely to produce local disturbances. 
“The tertiary period must be divided into two distinct formations, which 
may perhaps correspond to the European eocene and miocene. There is an 
older formation which is found principally on the west coast and in the 
interior on both sides of the primary ranges, and a newer one which may be 
called the Auckland tertiary formation.” After a description of the brown 
coal of the Auckland Province, the same writer goes on to state: “I now 
come to another series of the older tertiary strata, examples of which are 
found occurring in great regularity on the west coast from Waikato to 
Kawhia. The lowest are argillaceous, the middle calcareous, and the upper 
arenaceous. The characteristics of the first clayey strata are a light grey 
colour, very few fossils, small crystals of iron pyrites, and glauconitic grains, 
which give these clay marls a similarity to the gault and greensands of the 
eretaceous formation in Europe. They are found on the eastern branches of 
Whaingaroa, Aotea, and Kawhia Harbours. 
“Of greater interest and importance are the calcareous strata, consisting 
of tabular limestone, sometimes of conglomerate nature, sometimes more 
crystalline, the whole mass of which is formed of fragments of shells, corals, 
and foraminifere, interspersed with perfect specimens of terebratule, 
oysters, pectens, and other shells. The limestone when burnt -n 
excellent lime, and may be wrought and polished for architectural purposes.” 
Beds of limestone in the Wairoa district, as well as rich fossiliferous strata 
from the Waikato Heads towards Kawhia Harbour, also columnar blocks of 
.. the same adorning the entrance to Whaingaroa Harbour, and the fine caves 
= ee Kawhia Harbour, are then described. 
