572 "Transactions.—QG eology. 
another patch of limestone, containing the usual fossils, and dipping to the 
west at about 10?, whilst at Te Tuhi a few large blocks are left capping the 
hill, also with the same fossils. It will be seen from an inspection of Section 8, 
Plate XXIII.,thatif the limestonethere shown were continued westwards with 
the same dip, that it would cut the Maungaharuru Range, both at its highest 
point, 4,265 feet above the sea, and also at Te Waka, in the positions where 
we actually find it capping the range. This shows, I think, that the intro- 
vening space was at one time occupied by continuous sheets of limestones, 
which would have rested unconformably on the lower strata of conglome- 
rate, etc., and which have been denuded off; in the first place by the action 
of the sea as the country generally rose, and later by sub-srial agencies. 
I have mentioned above the occurrence of pumice in this district. It is 
found nearly everywhere: on the river terraces, the hill sides, and on top 
of the highest mountains, covering the surface with a deposit of sand 
more or less deep, and in larger or smaller particles. During the course of 
the last five years it has been my duty to visit the tops of most of the 
higher mountains lying between Napier and Tongariro, and thence north- 
ward to the country under consideration, and in every case a deposit of 
pumice sand has been found, sometimes plainly showing, at others covered 
by vegetation. On the Panikiri and neighbouring ranges around Waikare- 
moana, it is found of a considerable thickness, whilst the lower lands 
along the lake are covered by it sometimes to a depth of three feet. On 
the eastern side of the Maungaharuru Range it is very thickly deposited, 
being often, in the gullies, six to eight feet thick. The extensive terraces 
of the Lower Mohaka River (which contain as large a quantity of level land 
as is to be found in the district) are thickly covered with it, thereby 
rendering them unfit for cultivation. 
Towards the east the deposit gradually thins out, until, approaching the 
vicinity of Poverty Bay, very little is seen. The only spots that are free 
from it are the lowest terraces of the rivers and the surface of the slips, and, 
as the country lying along the coast is the most subject to these slips as 
mentioned above, it is here that the pumice has in a great measure disap- 
peared, thus allowing the grasses to spread. 
The generalopinion appears to be that this pumice was ejected from 
Tongariro and the adjacent volcanoes, and was spread over the surface of 
the country by the wind ; and there are certain considerations which favour 
this view, such for instance as finding the greatest thickness of the sand on 
the lee sides of the high ranges, where it would naturally accumulate; and also 
from the fact that the size of the articles appears to diminish as we recede 
from the supposed centre of distribution ; but at the same time this will not 
account for all the facts. An examination of the sand seems to show that 
