312 Essays. 



Belemnites, there being several species of Belemnite, but all belonging to 

 tbe family of Ganaliculati. These are the first specimens of these genera 

 which have been discovered in the regions of Australasia." 



" Secondary rocks may probably be found in some other parts of the 

 "West Coast, and occur, as I have been kindly informed by the Eev. A. Gr. 

 Purchas, in the harbour of Hokianga, but everyAvhere of limited superficial 

 extent." 



To this short description of the secondary rocks, I can only add the 

 possible secondary character of sundry limestones and sandstones on the 

 east coast of the "Wellington Province, but in which no distinctive fossils 

 have as yet been found. The southern limit of these is at the "White Pock, 

 Barton's Station, and they extend, at all events, as far as the northern 

 boundary of the Province of Wellington, occupying, with some decided 

 tertiaries, which rest upon them, a breadth of about seven miles from the 

 coast. 



Tertiasy, on KAiirozoic Foematioxs. 



By far the greater part of the North Island of New Zealand is covered 

 by rocks of tertiary age. 



The oldest of the tertiary rocks would appear to be beds of brown coal, 

 with accompanying shales. It is necessary to observe that there are beds of 

 lignite found in the newer tertiary sandstones, which may be defined as 

 lignites, not brown coal. 



These brown coal and shale strata are succeeded, in the Wellington 

 Province, by strata of blue clay and limestone, with Cmull.cEa sincjularis, 

 of which beds this fossil is most characteristic. The blue clay is again 

 covered by a succession of strata of sandstones and arenaceous limestones, 

 both being fossiliferous, and attaining in some parts a great thickness. 

 Above these, again, a drift gravel is often found. In the Whanganui, 

 Eangitikei, and other West Coast i-ivers, some of these tertiary strata are 

 marked in a remarlrable manner with numerous horizontal bands or lines of 

 boulders, or concretions surrounding boulders or some other substances, 

 such as fossil shells. These boulders are generally either of igneous or 

 palaeozoic rocks. In the southern part of the island these tertiary forma- 

 tions, or some of them at least, are found on both sides of the main range, 

 lying generally horizontal or slightly inclined, and abutting on the Tararua 

 and Puahine ranges on both sides. They then stretch northward on the 

 west side of the range until they reach, and become mixed with, the volcanic 

 products of the interior, continue to the N.W. probably all through the 

 Province of Taranaki (fringing Mount Egmont), into the Province of 

 Auckland — the tertiaries of which will be hereafter described. Prom the 



