McKay.—On the Reptilian Beds of New Zealand. 587 
beds at Amuri Bluff, the lower sands of the Waipara and the coal beds of 
the Malvern Hills; Belemnites, Inoceramus, and other characteristic shells, 
besides saurian remains closely associated with volcanic rocks, occurring 
under like conditions as the trachitic conglomerate described by Dr. Haast 
as interbedded with coal seams in the Malvern Hills. 
It might be gathered from the authorities I have already cited that this 
series has already been traced to its very lowest beds. With this conclusion 
in the main I agree, but am still prepared for the discovery in the South 
Island of local deposits of still older date ; and in the North Island, along 
the east coast, of a large development of rocks conformably underlying the 
saurian beds. 
At all points where seen, the Amuri group lies highly unconformable on 
what appears to have been a very uneven surface, and this character of the 
old land seems to have been but little modified during the depression of the 
area over which the younger beds have been deposited. 
The consequence is that the lower beds often appear as though deposited 
in bay-like indentations, a' fact which appears to have been particularly 
noticeable to Dr. Haast during his earlier examinations of the Waipara 
district. A larger acquaintance with the beds in the adjoining district 
showed him that the Waipara beds could not have been so deposited, and 
this difficulty is overcome in his later reports by gradually increasing the 
dimensions of this imaginary bay, till eventually what, in the first instance, 
was of very moderate size, now, according to him, extended from the 
Looker-on Mountains in the Marlborough district to Otago Peninsula, 
Captain Hutton seems to lay considerable stress on the apparent fact 
that ** many of our vallies were formed in jurassic times." And in support 
of this view, points to the occurrence of outliers of the Waipara beds in the 
Upper Waipara, Waimakariri, and Rakaia Rivers. 
The occurrence of cretaceous rocks in the localities indicated, I do not 
consider as at all proving that the vallies in which they are now found were 
then excavated. _ 
It might as well be contended that, because these same rocks are to be 
found at an elevation of over 4,000 feet on the neighbouring ranges, that 
the mountains in question are thus proved to date back to jurassic times. 
Dr. Haast, with a reasoning similar to that of Captain Hutton, would 
place the excavation of some of our vallies at a period long prior to jurassic 
times, as the following extract from his Amuri report will show :—“ It may 
be truly said that after the mostly sub-erial denudation of these mountains, 
probably after the deposition of the triassic beds in New Zealand, the 
skeleton form of this portion of the South Island was already fixed, and 
that subsequent volcanic action, and the deposition of extensive younger 
