Ninth Annual Report. 513 



presented by the Trustees of the British Museum, aud by the Copenhagen 

 Museum through Captain Eowan. 



Minerals. — 620 specimens have been added, which number inchides a 

 large series obtained in exchange from the British Museum, and selected by 

 dii-ection of Professor J. Storey Masldyne, F.E.S., in order to make as 

 complete as possible the typical coUection, which now contains representa- 

 tives of every important mineral species. A valuable series, comprising 109 

 species of ores and associated minerals from the Calif ornian mining region, 

 was received from Mr. H. G. Hanks, which, with the large collection of 

 specimens brought by the Director from the Colorado and Utah regions, 

 affords a very complete illustration of the metalliferous deposits of the 

 Western States. 



Paleontology. — Among the foreign collections in this section is a valu- 

 able donation from Mr. James Brogden, of a series of the Saurians from 

 Lyme Kegis, and the associated Triassic fossils. 



For the purpose of comparison, casts of 300 of the best fossil specimens 

 in the European and American Museums were obtained through Professor 

 H. A. Ward. 



Geological Snrveg Collections. — During the present year a special exami- 

 nation has been made of the fossiliferous beds of the Waikato Heads, with 

 a view of determining their age and tracing their extent. A considerable 

 collection of fossils was made from the locahty, but the number of distinct 

 forms obtained is small. 



An important collection was made from certain blue clay marls occur- 

 ring at the mouth of the Waikauau Creek, about fourteen miles south of 

 the Waikato Heads, as an upper part of the grey marls not yet detected 

 elsewhere, and which will be referred to as the " Cardita Beds," from the 

 abundant occurrence in them of Cardita planicostata, a well-marked Lower 

 Eocene fossil in Europe. 



These beds had formerly been classified as the equivalents of the Waite- 

 mata beds as developed at Mercer, but the collections now obtained from 

 each of these localities, in addition to stratigraphical evidence, make the 

 separation of these two necessary, the Mercer beds belonging to the chalk 

 marls. 



In the Oamaru District six very important collections have been made, 

 in addition to several smaller ones, and the evidence gained renders it 

 necessary to readjust the classification of the beds adopted by Captain 

 Hutton in his " Geology of Otago," his Trelissic group being in part the 

 same as his Pareora group ; while, on the other hand, many localities con- 

 sidered by him to belong to his Pareora formation, to his Trelissic forma- 

 tion, and the whole of his Ototara group, will, from the fossils, have to be 



