820 Essays. 
centre to long boulder banks on both sides. That on the northern side 
forms a protection to the inner harbour. 
From the southern boulder bank the Ahuriri Plains sweep into the 
interior to join the plains of the Ruataniwha, which are continued by the 
terraces of the Forty-Mile Bush to the Wairarapa Plain and to Palliser 
Bay. 
Passing round the shores of Hawke Bay we find the tertiary limestones, 
sandstones, mudstones, and clays forming the cliffs towards Cape Kidnappers. 
They dip slightly to the westward, and therefore it may be supposed that 
certain lines of trappean dykes which are found further south, near Flat 
Point and elsewhere, here pass out diagonally seaward, and that their 
intrusion has caused the tilting action which will account for the westerly 
dip. At Cape Kidnappers there is some reason to suppose that the hydraulic 
limestones, of probably mesozoic age, may be found lying unconformably 
below the tertiaries. From Cape Kidnappers on a clear day Ruapehu may 
be seen, but Tongariro and Ngauruhoe are hidden by the intervening ranges. 
Hence the Ruahine range shows out strongly and sharply, covered by snow 
for many months in the year. Passing to the southward from Cape Kid- 
nappers we skirt a range of calcareous and sandstone rocks, the probable 
secondaries, rising to an average elevation of about 1,000 feet, and preserving 
a monotonous sameness of character and outline. They hide the higher and 
more picturesque ranges in the background. At Castle Point a small 
harbour is formed by a reef and peninsula of tertiary limestone, with Pecten 
burnettii, and here also certain sandstones and mudstones are found con- 
taining undefined impressions of plants and small seams of coal Along 
this coast, and more particularly between Flat Point and Pahaoa, the 
hydraulic limestone series is met with, which may possibly be of mesozoic 
age. At Waikekino, six miles south of Flat Point, reefs of Amphibolite are 
found on the shore and in the sea, penetrating the above-named calcareous 
rocks, and boulders of various trappean rocks are common in the Kaiwhata 
and other rivers. Passing to the south of the Pahaoa iren, paleozoic 
sandstones and slates appear, with jasperoid rocks, and these round 
the bold buttress-like headland of Cape Palliser. 
Proceeding round the abrupt and rugged country which lies behind Cape 
Palliser, we reach the level plain of the Wairarapa Valley. An inland plain 
of about ten miles broad, which passes up between the Rimutaka and 
Tararua ranges on the left, and the lower slope of the tertiary ranges on the 
right, continues with a similar width through the Forty-Mile Bush to the 
eastern Manawatu, thence to the Ruataniwha Plains, and then turns seaward 
to Napier. An old fjord, or possibly two separate arms of the sea which 
formed = terraces, now offers an admirable line of communication 
