564 ox THE COEEELATIOXS OP THE " CITRIOSITY-SHOP BED." 



marly greensands] are ver}' dissimilar " (Z. c. p. 73) ; but this state- 

 ment cannot be received as full evidence until lists of the fossils are 

 published. In fact there appears to be no actual proof of uncon- 

 formity anywhere ; it is merely argued that such an unconformity 

 must exist because the ITaerewhenua limestone ought in certain 

 places to come in between the two beds of marly greensand. But 

 this argument rests entirely on the assumption that the Maere- 

 whenua limestone is older than the Kekenodon beds, and differs from 

 the Otakaika limestone, of which no proof at all is given; and, 

 as bones of Kekenodon have been since found in the Maerewhenua 

 limestone, it is evident that the whole argument collapses. Indeed, 

 in his Second Report, Mr. M^Kay calls the Otakaika limestone the 

 equivalent of the middle part of the Maerewhenua limestone (I. c. 

 p. 104) ; and if this be so, the Kekenodon beds would appear to be 

 the same as the so-called Cretaceo-Tertiary marly greensands ; and 

 the whole of the rocks, from the Hutchinson's-quarry beds down to 

 the marly greensands, would form a single series, l^o. 1 in the Table 

 (p. 1) being the same as jSFo. 4, K'o. 2 the same as Xo. 5, and ^o. 3 

 the same as No, 6. It seems to me that this is the only way in 

 which " the evidence on which the subdivision of the Lower Tertiary 

 and Upper Cretaceous strata has been proposed" can be " completely 

 cleared up." 



The stratigraphical evidence fails, therefore, equally with the 

 paleeontological evidence, to indicate any important break between 

 these rocks, and the whole of them must be included in one system, 

 the Oamaru System of Dr. von Haast and myself *. 



Discussion. 



Dr. BLA:ffP0ED pointed out that of the 48 species from the 

 Curiosity-Shop beds, 10, or more than 20 per cent., are stiU. living. 

 Such a percentage could scarcely be expected in beds older than 

 Oligocene, and was remarkable even in strata of that age. 



Dr. DuiS'CAX said that he had not found so large a proportion of 

 living species of Echinodermata and Corals even in the Miocene 

 beds of Western India. The more carefully the morphology of late 

 Tertiary forms was studied the fewer were the species which de- 

 scended from the Tertiaries to the recent faunas. Even in the 

 deep-sea faunas the species which were assigned to old genera 

 belonged to special divisions of them. 



Mr. ToPLET inquired how far Cretaceous forms prevailed. 



Mr. Blai^foeb read over the list of genera, which showed that 

 very few, if any, characteristically Cretaceous types occurred in the 

 deposit. 



* Some of the " Cretaceo-Tertiary " greensands and coal may, I think, prove 

 to belong to the Pareora system. 



