198 PROCEEDINGS OP THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Nov. 2, 



The Tertiary beds of Auckland are everywhere broken through 

 by extinct volcanos, varying from 200 to 800 feet in height. The 

 craters are generally scoriaceous, in a perfect condition, with a de- 

 pression of the rim usually to the north or east. There are also 

 around the district other volcanic hills, rounded, scoriaceous, more 

 fertile than the crateriform hills, and apparently of an older date. 



4. On the Geology of the South -eastern part of Vancouver Island. 

 By Hilary Bauerman, Esq. 



(Transmitted from the Foreign Office to Sir KoderickMurchison, F.R.S., F.G.S., 

 and communicated by him to the Geological Society.) 



The following remarks are the results of observations made during 

 the summer and autumn of the year 1858, and are designed to 

 illustrate a series of fossils and rock- specimens collected during tho 

 same time from the glacial, tertiary, and cretaceous formations of 

 the island, and from the metamorphic and igneous rocks of Esquimalt 

 and Victoria. The observations have been made at Esquimalt 

 and Nanaimo, and on board II. M.S. " Satellite " in the Gulf of 

 Georgia. The references in the sketch-section annexed are to the 

 map of the S.E. portion of Vancouver Island by J. D. Pemberton, 

 published by Arrowsmith. The beds are described in stratigraphical 

 order, commencing with the lowest. 



1. Metamorphic and Igneous Hocks. — These are everywhere seen 

 in the neighbourhood of Esquimalt and Victoria, principally occurring 

 in the form of dark-green sandstones and shales, which pass by 

 insensible gradations into serpentine and chlorite -slate. They are 

 very full of small strings and veins of quartz. The harder beds are 

 very much jointed ; and it is often difficult to obtain a fresh fracture, 

 owing to their tendency to split into rhomboidal fragments, the sur- 

 faces of which are generally much rusted and tarnished from the action 

 of water infiltered through the joints. Several beds of unfossiliferous 

 crystalline limestone are associated with the metamorphic rocks 

 above-described, and are often of considerable thickness. A section 

 in the cliff at the Boundary Commission Barracks exhibits alterna- 

 tions of compact and shaly blue limestone over a thickness of forty 

 feet, the strata being vertical. At another point on the bay, the 

 same series of beds, with greater variation of mineral character, is 

 seen dipping to the northward, at an angle of 50°. 



The metamorphic rocks assume a gneissic character to the north- 

 ward of Esquimalt. On the shores of Thetis Lake, about two miles 

 distant, dark-green sandstones and mica-slates occur, which are 

 penetrated by dykes of largely crystalline greenstone and syenite : 

 the former is made up of large black scales of hornblende and a light- 

 green felspar, and becomes syenitic by the addition of quartz. The 

 effect of these dykes on the rocks penetrated is very apparent, the 

 beds having been completely fused at the points of contact. At the 

 head of Victoria Harbour a dark laminated gneiss, with quartz-veins, 

 is exposed : the direction of the planes of lamination is N. 50° W., 



