246 



a volcano, and covered with tuffs and basaltic lava streams. This sandstone 1 

 suppose to be the equivalent of the Waitemata series, for reasons which will 

 appear further on. 



Passing now to the Drury coal field, we find at the abandoned works of 

 the Waihoihoi Coal Mining Company (Section II.) the Brown coal series 

 dipping slightly N.W., and resting upon an uneven floor of dark blue sub- 

 metamorphosed sandstones, in all probability of the same age as the slates 

 underlying the Waikato coal field. The sei-ies here consists of — 



1. Light grey clay ........ 



2. Brown coal, more or less impure .... 5 feet. 



3. Light grey clay . . . . . . . . 20 ,, 



The coal cj-ops out on the western slope of the Hunua Range, facing the 

 Manukau, and at the base of the slope there is a series of quarternary, red, 

 yellow, and white clays (f.), about fifty feet thick, which are underlaid, in all 

 the borings yet made, by boulders, or flows of vesicular basalt containing 

 chalcedony in its cavities. Further west, at Slippery Creek, near Drury, a 

 bed of dark blue or green volcanic ash, that weathers reddish bi-own, is seen 

 to underlie these clays. This rock is similar in appearance to the bed of tufa 

 in the Waitemata series seen in the cliffs below Parnell. Whatever may be 

 its age, it is probable, from its position, that it is younger than the Brown coal 

 series. 



Passing on further north, to Papakura, we find the coal series to consist 

 of— 



1. White sandstone, chocolate at the base, with nodules 



of clay ironstone . . . . . . 50 + feet. 



2. Brown coal ........ 4 ,, 



3. Clay, with ironstone . . . . . . 3 ,, 



4. Shale, with leaves of dicotyledons, and Anodonta 



elliptica, Hoch., MSS. . . . . . 30 „ 



5. Brown coal ........ 6 ,, 



6. Yellow clay ........ 1 „ 



It is here bi'oken by faults and dips at various angles. (Section III.) 

 Resting unconformably upon it, we see, at Campbell's old saw mill, a mass of 

 soft green sandstone. Still further north, the coal series has been washed 

 away, and on its slopes has been deposited the group of sandstones and lime- 

 stones which I here call the Papakura series. (Section III. c.) This series is 

 found at Cruickshank's quarry at a higher level than the coal, dipping 8° N.W., 

 and a little east of Papakura it is seen at the level of the Manukau flats. 

 At Cruickshank's quarry it consists of — 

 L Fine-grained grey sandstone . . . . . 50 + feet. 



2. Blue and yellow sandy clay, with fossils Wcddheimia 



gravida, Turhinolia, etc. . . . . 3 ,, 



