276 CAPT. r. W. HTJTTOI?' ox THE &EOLOGICiLL POSITIO^f 



tween the Amuri limestone and the Weka-pass Stone, exactly where 

 the stratigraphical evidence places it. 



In his ' Progress Eeport of the Geological Survey of 'New Zealand ' 

 for 1881 (p. xxii), Dr. Hector has given his reasons in favour of a 

 Cretaceo-tertiary System, and I gladly reproduce them so that hoth 

 sides of the case may he taken into consideration. He says, " The 

 objections which have been suggested against the present classifi- 

 cation appear to rely for substantiation on the fact that the fossils 

 of certain localities are not in every respect those found in other 

 localities, and thus, while the Cretaceous age of the beds in some 

 districts is not disputed, in other localities the coal series, although 

 lithologically the same in character, and closed by beds acknowledged 

 to be the equivalent of those terminating the admittedly Cretaceous 

 rocks, are, on account of a more Teiiiary aspect of their fossils, pro- 

 nounced to belong to a younger formation. In jS'orthern Canterbury, 

 as far south as the Eakaia Eiver, the coal rocks are overlain by 

 fossiliferous strata, which, besides the Plesiosauroid reptiles for 

 which the "Waipara district is famous, contain a few Secondary 

 genera, such as Belemnites, AporrJiais, Inoceramus, and Trigonia ; 

 but the great mass of the associated molluscan fauna agrees with 

 that of the coal rocks in other parts of Xew Zealand, where the 

 specially Cretaceous forms are rare or absent from the fossiliferous 

 horizons immediately overlying the coal-seams. If, therefore, after 

 eliminating the comparatively few fossils which form the peculiarities 

 of two localities, the bulk of those remaining are found to be the 

 same, there need be no hesitation in considering strata showing the 

 same succession of like characters in its different divisions as be- 

 longing to the sa^e series ; and, if in any one of these locaHties there 

 is evidence that the beds are of Cretaceous age, the other must be 

 regarded as of that age also. But if, in addition to this, there be, 

 in those localities where the lower beds lack fossils proving their 

 Cretaceous age, a presence of Cretaceous forms in the higher beds 

 of the same series, the correctness of the correlation will in this 

 way be corroborated. It is partly by evidence of this kind that the 

 Cretaceous age of several of our coal-bearing areas is sought to be 

 established." 



But in this argument there is, I venture to think, a fallacy. It is 

 no doubt true that the coal of the Waipara is overlain by green sand- 

 stones and calcareous rocks of Cretaceous age, and that these are again 

 overlain by other calcareous rocks containing fossils of Tertiary 

 aspect, such as Pecten Hochsfetteri and P. ZittelJi. But it is not ac- 

 knowledged that these latter terminate the Cretaceous rocks. On 

 the contrary it is asserted that they form a distinct series, separated 

 physically and palseontologicaUy from the Cretaceous System, and 

 belonging to an Oligocene vSystem. Consequently it is not admitted 

 that the great mass of the Molluscan fauna associated with marine 

 Saurians at Waipara " agrees with that of the coal-rocks in other 



