Hector.—On the Fossil Reptilia of New Zealand. 333 
Amr. LII.—On the Fossil Reptilia of New Zealand. By James HECTOR, 
M.D., F.R.S., Director of the Geological Survey of New Zealand. 
Plates XXVII.— XXXI. 
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 13th October, 1873.] 
Тне first notice of the occurrence in New Zealand strata of representatives of 
the Reptilian fauna characteristic of the mesozoic epoch, was made in 1861, 
when Professor Owen communicated to the British Association a brief 
description of certain fossils that had been discovered by Mr. T. H. Cockburn 
Hood, Е.0.8., and presented by him to the British Museum. These fossil 
remains were obtained by Mr. Hood in a ravine on one of the tributaries of 
the Waipara River, at the northern extremity of the Canterbury plains. They 
comprise the vertebral centra, ribs, and coracoid bones, all belonging to the 
same individual which Professor Owen referred to a new species—Plesiosaurus 
australis.* 
No further discovery of Saurian remains was made till after the occurrence 
of a great flood, in 1868, when Mr. Hood again obtained a large collection, and 
shipped it to England, unfortunately, by the ship * Mataoka,” which was lost 
on the homeward voyage. Dr. Haast, however, communicated a short account 
of this collection to the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury,t and states that 
he “made drawings and took measurements of all the more important 
specimens, so that, in case the collection should not reach its destination, the 
information, at least, will not be altogether lost to the scientific world." This 
foresight was most fortunate, as. notwithstanding the great number and variety 
of the remains since found, that co.ucwuon appears to have contained the only 
skull fragment, with jaws and teeth, of a true Sauropterygian that has yet 
been discovered. 
In 1867 I had visited the localityt along with Mr. W. Т. L. Travers, and 
obtained only a few fragments of these fossils; but after Mr. Hood's second 
discovery I sent Mr. R. L. Holmes, provided with the requisite appliances, to 
obtain a more complete collection for the Colonial Museum. Drawings of 
these, forwarded to Professor Owen, enabled him to add two new species, 
which he named Plesiosaurus crassicostatus and P. hoodii.$ 
In the following year Dr. Haast made a detailed survey of the district, and 
obtained a large series of Saurian and other fossils, which are now in the 
Canterbury Museum.|| 
Mr. John Buchanan, of the Geological Survey Department, having some 
years previously discovered the existence of Belemnite beds at the Amuri 
Bluff, a locality on the East Coast fifty miles north of the Waipara, €f Dr. Haast's 
* Trans. Brit. Ass., 1861, p. 122, et seq. + Trans. N.Z. Inst., Vol. IL, p. 186. 
+ Prog. Rep. Geol. Surv. N.Z., 1868, p. 9. 
8 Geol. Mag., Feb., 1870, Vol. "Г p.49, pl. 3. || Rep. Geol. Surv. N.Z., 1870, p. 5. 
T Geol. Rep., 1867. 
