GEOLOGY OF NEW ZEALAND. 21 1 



Turritella gigantea, Hutton. 

 Scalaria Ijrata, Zittel. 

 Dentalium giganteum, Sow. 

 Oucullsea alta, Sow. 



Pecten Burnetti, Zittel. 



polymorphoides, Zitiel, 



Ostrea Wiillerstorfi, Zittel. 



Wanganui System, 



Marine beds belonging to this system have been proved by 

 palaeontological evidence only in the southern half of North Island, 

 from Patea and Wanganui on Cook's Straits (Piitiki Series), to 

 the Ngaruroro River-(Kereru Series), and Esk E,iver (Petane Series) 

 in Hawkes Bay. There can be no doubt, however, that the system 

 also occurs at Poverty Bay (Ormond Series), at Taranaki, round 

 Manukau Harbour, on the west side of Whangarei Harbour, and in 

 various other places in the province of Auckland. In the South 

 Island the marine beds of the north appear to be represented by 

 thick unfossiliferoas gravels, which are very difficult to distinguish 

 from the upper gravels of the Pareora System. These beds rest 

 unconformably on the Pareora System in the western part of Wel- 

 lington Province *, and also in Hawkes Bayf, wherever the junction 

 has been seen, the only doubtful place being at Pohui, east of Napier, 

 where, according to Mr. Cox J, the unconformity mentioned by 

 Mr. Percy Smith below his " Pohui papa § " does not exist. The 

 marine beds attain an elevation of more than 2000 feet near Napier. 



I have elsewhere || given reasons for concluding that the former 

 great extension of our glaciers was caused by greater elevation of 

 the land during the interval between the Pareora System and the 

 marine beds of the Wanganui System. As these marine beds are 

 fossiliferous in the North Island only, where there are no traces of 

 former glaciation, it is not possible to get direct proof of this ; but 

 in Otago the old Taieri moraine, between Lake Waihola and the sea, 

 which forms low rounded hills between 400 and 500 feet in height, 

 is, on the seaward side, covered nearly to the top by marine gravels, 

 which may belong to this system or may be younger. 



The fossils of this system are very different from those of the last. 

 We miss the species of Struthiolaria and Pecten ; and there is no 

 Conus or Limopsis. On the other hand Murecc^ Troplion, Pisania, 

 and Cassis appear for the first time. It is also remarkable that 

 there should be three genera, Oliva^ Sigaretus, and Risella., not 

 now represented in our seas. Prom 70 to 90 per cent, of the 

 MoUusca, and all the Brachiopoda are recent. Dr. von Haast has 

 found Moa bones in morainic deposits % belonging to this system. A 

 list of some of the Foraminifera from the Petane Series by Mr. G. E. 

 Yine, junior, will be found in the ' Transactions of the New Zealand 

 Institute,' vol. xiii. p. 393. In addition to the large percentage of 

 recent species, this system may be recognized by : — 



* M<=E:ay, Eep. Geol. Surv. 1877-78, p. 19 ; and I.e. 1878-79, p. 84. 



t M*^Kay, I.e. 1878-79. | Eep. G-eol. Surv. 1874-76, p. 97. 



§ Trans. N. Z. Inst. ix. p. 568. 



II Trans. N. Z. Inst. v. p. 384, and Geology of Otago, p. 83. 



^ Geology of Canterbury and Westland, p. 380, and Quart. Juurn, Geol, 

 Soc. xxi. p. 135. 



