XCVl PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



With regard to the marine fauna, it appears from Dr. Zittel's ex- 

 amination of the fossils that the molluscous fauna of the younger 

 Tertiary deposits is closely allied to the living fauna, very much in 

 the same proportion as that of the Subapennine formation of Italy is 

 allied to the existing fauna of the Mediterranean. The same genera 

 occur, both fossil and living, and even the species are not unfre- 

 quently identical ; at the same time they have a great resemblance 

 to the Tertiary fossils of Chili and Patagonia, described by Sowerby 

 and D'Orbigny, i. e. to a fossil fauna of the same age and from the 

 same degree of latitude. 



But if we consider the remains derived from older formations, we 

 find that the Ammonites, Belemnites, Inoceramus, &c. of the nor- 

 thern island, which belong to the upper beds of the Mesozoic period 

 (Jura and Chalk formation), so closely resemble European forms of the 

 same age, that one is almost tempted to look upon them as European 

 species ; more particularly the Belemnites, belonging to the group of 

 the Ganaliculati, D'Orb,, so completely agree with the Belemn. 

 canalicalatus, Sehloth, that it is almost impossible to find sufficient 

 difierences to justify the adoption of a new name. Moreover, the 

 oldest fossiliferous beds which are found on the southern island, not 

 far from Nelson, contain the genera Monotis and Halolia, which can- 

 not be distinguished from the European forms Monotis salinaria and 

 Halohia Lommeli, Wissm., from the Trias of the Alps. 



Dr. Hochstetter observes that these facts, if confirmed, would go 

 to prove that the faunas of former periods show an affinity and a 

 correspondence in the northern and southern hemispheres which do 

 not exist in the now living faunas — a conclusion hardly in accord- 

 ance with the above-quoted views of Agassiz, but quite in harmony 

 with the more generally prevailing opinion, that the older the for- 

 mations are, the greater is the resemblance in their fossil remains, 

 even in districts at a great distance from each other. 



He then gives a general view of all the different formations, with 

 their respective subdivisions in New Zealand, from which he con- 

 cludes that ^' at the period when the neighbouring Australia, which 

 was (at least so far as relates to those portions which consist of Palae- 

 ozoic formations) one of the oldest continents of the earth, rose above 

 the waters of the ocean, certain portions of New Zealand also ap- 

 peared as rugged land above the ocean ; in a different form, it is 

 true, from what it now presents, and possibly in connexion with 

 vast continental masses which have long ago been again submerged. 

 But while Australia, in its eastern and western portions, has been 

 little, if at all, disturbed since the conclusion of the Palaeozoic period, 

 so that animals and plants could live and reproduce themselves 

 in an unbroken sequence down to the present day. New Zealand, on 

 the contrary, was, even to the most recent period, the theatre of 

 gigantic terrestrial disturbances and powerful terrestrial conflicts, 

 which, continually changing the original form of the land, have 

 gradually given it its present configuration. 



After these general views, the author proceeds to give a detailed 

 account of all the geological features of the north and south islands, 



