320 



Essays. 



centre to long boulder banks on both sides. Tbat on the northern side 

 forms a i:)rotection to the inner harbour. 



From the southern boulder bant the Ahuriri Plains sweep into the 

 interior to join the plains of the Euataniwha, which are continued by the 

 terraces of the Forty-Mile Bush to the Wairarapa Plain and to Palliser 

 Bay. 



Passing round the shores of Hawke Bay we find the tertiary limestones, 

 sandstones, mudstones, and clays forming the cliffs towards Cape Kidnappers. 

 They dip slightly to the westward, and therefore it may be supposed that 

 certain lines of trappean dykes which are found further south, near Flat 

 Point and elsewhere, here pass out diagonally seaward, and that their 

 intrusion has caused the tilting action which will account for the westerly 

 dip. At Cape Kidnappers there is some reason to suppose that the hydraulic 

 limestones, of probably mesozoic age, may be found lying unconformably 

 below the tertiaries. From Cape Kidnappers on a clear day Euapehu may 

 be seen, but Tongariro and Ngauruhoe are hidden by the intervening ranges. 

 Hence the Euahine range shows out strongly and sharply, covered by snow 

 for many months in the year. Passing to the southward from Cape Kid- 

 nappers we skirt a range of calcareous and sandstone rocks, the probable 

 secondaries, rising to an average elevation of about 1,000 feet, and preserving 

 a monotonous sameness of character and outline. They hide the higher and 

 more picturesque ranges in the background. At Castle Point a small 

 harbour is formed by a reef and peninsula of tertiary limestone, with Pecten 

 hurnettii, and here also certain sandstones and mudstones are found con- 

 taining undefined impressions of plants and small seams of coal. Along 

 this coast, and more particularly between Flat Point and Pahaoa, the 

 hydraulic limestone series is met with, which may possibly be of mesozoic 

 age. At Waikekino, six miles south of Flat Point, reefs of 4-m^hiholite are 

 found on the shore and in the sea, penetrating the above-named calcareous 

 rocks, and boulders of various trappean rocks are common in the Kaiwhata 

 and other rivers. Passing to the south of the Pahaoa Eivei', palaeozoic 

 sandstones and slates appear, with jasperoid rocks, and these continue round 

 the bold buttress-like headland of Cape Palliser. 



Proceeding round the abrupt and rugged country which lies behind Cape 

 Palliser, we reach the level plain of the Wairarapa Valley. An inland plain 

 of about ten miles broad, which passes up between the Eimutaka and 

 Tararua ranges on the left, and the lower slope of the tertiary ranges on the 

 right, continues with a similar width through the Forty-Mile Bush to the 

 eastern Manawatu, thence to the Euataniwha Plains, and then turns seaward 

 to Napier. An old fjord, or possibly two separate arms of the sea which 

 formed gravel terraces, now offers an admirable line of communication 



