Crawford. — Geologij of the North Island of New Zealand. 311 



nortliward, over Wailieke and Kawau to tlie Bay o£ Islands. In a soutlierly 

 direction tliey extend, tHrougli Hakarimata and Hauturu range, parallel 

 with the "West Coast, to tlie Mokau district, where, at Wairere, the Makau 

 Eiver falls in a magnificent cascade over a lofty precipice of that rock." 



" The same formation occurs again in the Hangitoto Mountain, in the 

 upper Waipa, and west of Taupo Lake, in the Tuhua mountains." 



To the southAvard of the country described by Hochstetter, palaeozoic 

 slates and sandstones are found cropping out in the bed of the "Waipare, a 

 tributary of the upper Whangauui, and from Maori report old slates will 

 probably be found in a similar manner in the bed of the Whakapapa and 

 other tributaries of the Whanganui, and perhaps also at some point of the 

 upper part of the main stream itself. 



At the Waipare, tertiary sandstones and volcanic tuffs have been cut 

 through by the action of the stream down to the palaeozoic base. The latter 

 rock, at this point, is a slate traversed by threads of quartz. 



To the eastward of the Hauraki G-ulf the palaeozoic rocks retain somewhat, 

 but in a lesser degree, the. bold angular form of the main ranges to the 

 eastward of the island ; but on the western side of the gulf, as at Kawau, 

 they frequently sink to comparatively a few feet above the sea level, and are 

 often covered by a thin coating of newer tertiaries, by which their charac- 

 teristic outline is destroyed. 



Secondart, or Mesozoic Formations. 



It is quite possible that secondary rocks may exist to a considerable 

 extent in the North Island ; but, if so, they must be in great part either 

 covered up and hidden by rocks of a later era, or be represented by some 

 of the rocks now classed as palaeozoic. To Hochstetter belongs the merit of 

 discovering the only decided secondary rocks which have yet been found, 

 and the following is his description of them* : — 



" A very wide interval occurs between the primary rocks of the North 

 Island and the next sedimentary strata that I met with. Not only the upper 

 members of the primary series are absent, but also nearly the whole of the 

 secondary formations. The only instance of secondary strata that I have 

 met with consists of very regular and highly inclined beds of marl, alter- 

 nating with micaceous sandstone, extending to a thickness of more than 

 1,000 feet, Avhich I first saw on the South Head of the Waikato, and after- 

 wards met with on the western shore of Kawhia Harboiir. 



" These rocks possess great interest, from the fact that they contain 

 remarkable specimens of marine fossils, which belong exclusively to the 

 secondary period ; especially Cephalopods of the genera Ammonites and 



* Fischer's Translation, p. 17. 



