70 The Geology of the Fortland Promontory, 



increased from the size of peas up to that of blocks a foot 

 long. At some points I noticed pseudo-dykes in the ash, 

 formed of a sort of soapstone. 



Having ascended the cliffs from the fishermen's huts, I 

 found that the limestone disappeared about half way up the 

 hill, at about 200 feet above sea level, and lava, weathered 

 into boulders, then showed through the turf When nearly 

 over the dyke, I found that the hill rose inland from the 

 cliff edge very steeply. Its crest is a few hundred feet 

 distant from the cliff* edge, and it has an altitude of 449 feet. 

 Over an area of six or seven acres the surface is a mass of 

 rugged lava. Immediately to the north of this outcrop is a 

 a slight hollow or dell, in extent about one acre. This 

 depression may be the nearly obliterated vent of a small and 

 much decayed volcanic cone. A lava flow extends from the 

 rocky crest towards the south-west ; it is about a chain 

 wide and a quarter of a mile long, and it does not reach the 

 sea. This flow has a quite fresh look, and it is the only one 

 within this area that I have seen, which has such a very 

 recent appearance. Both the strike of the lava dyke and the 

 dip of the lenticular lava bed are directed towards this 

 crater. The dip of the ash beds from a point near Yance's 

 up to Cape Bridgewater forms a series of radial lines, which 

 centre here also, and if the strikes of the several beds were 

 worked out, I believe that they would form segments of 

 circles grouped around this hill. 



About a mile south from the crest of this extinct volcano, 

 the cliffs, from trending south-east, turn abruptly to the west. 

 This corner forms Cape Bridgewater. Directly the cape is 

 rounded the ash beds dip steeply to the north-east, and 

 disappear under level bedded lava flows, which then form 

 the whole height of the cliff. A mile to the west this cliff is 

 150 feet high perpendicular, and built up of level layers of 

 solid lava, as regular in their courses as mason work. A 

 thin stratum of the false-bedded limestone and some loose 

 sand cap the whole. (See sketch P.) 



At Liddle's Watering Place, a spot some three miles 

 north-west of the crater, the cliffs are 130 feet high ; the 

 lava portion being about 70 feet, and the limestone 60 feet 

 thick. The lava is hard and dark, and occurs in rude 

 hexagonal columns. It has been cut into two well-marked 

 wide platforms, and the upper one is greatly encrusted with 

 travertine, deposited by the calcareous springs. (See 

 sketch K) 



