﻿344 Transactions — Geology, 



The age of the strata containing these fossil bones is a matter of some 

 interest, and on this subject Professor Huxley remarks : — 



" Whatever be the precise age of the fossil, it is not a little remarkable to 

 find in strata of such antiquity the remains of a bird, the whole of whose 

 congeners are at present absolutely confined to the southern hemisphere, and, 

 therefore, in a broad sense, to the same great distributional area. If the strata 

 be of pliocene age, the fact is in accordance with the relations which have been 

 observed to obtain between the recent and pliocene faunte of the northern 

 hemisphere. On the other hand, the little that is at present known respecting 

 the distribution of birds in time is not inconsistent with the ascription of a 

 far greater antiquity to a genus as closely allied as Palceeudyptes to those which 

 now exist." 



I am now inclined to the opinion that the fossils belong to the earliest 

 tertiary formations of New Zealand for the following reasons. 



The Kakanui limestone, which is the same as the Ototara series of Mantell, 

 and from which the specimen submitted to Professor Huxley came, was 

 considered by Professors Forbes and P. Jones, who examined the associated 

 fossils, to possess mixed characters of the eocene and upper cretaceous 

 formations of Europe.* 



This limestone is very widely distributed round the sea-board of the ISToi-th 

 Island, and afibrds a very distinct horizon, which closes the earlier tertiaiy 

 deposits, as it nowhere, so far as I am aware, passes conformably into the 

 marine tertiary formations of later date. 



On the west coast of the Island, although the tertiary strata occur in 

 detached areas, their relative age can be observed with a considerable amovmt 

 of certainty. 



Without entering fully into the discussion of the geology of these forma- 

 tions, they may be shortly described as follows, to explain the stratigi'aphical 

 position of the bed from which the fossil bones were obtained : — 



1. Underlying the gold drifts {^pleistocene) in the coimty of Westland, and 

 extending northwards up the valley of the Gi-rey River are blue sandy clays 

 passing upwards into a coarse shingle conglomerate, and which together repre- 

 sent the upper marine tertiaries on the west coast. Towards the base of this 

 formation, which is at least 1,000 feet thick, calcareous nodules occur, con- 

 taining StrutMolaria, Ancillaria, Dosinia, Cucullcea, and other fossil shells 

 characteristic of the younger tertiary series, and closely allied to, or identical 

 with species that still exist in the neighbouring seas. 



2. Unconformably disposed to these, and of much higher antiquity, are the 

 following groups of strata, to which I have collectively applied the term 

 cretaceo-tertiary, as no well marked break that is common to all the sections 



* "Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc," VL, 329. ~~~ 



