1865.] Geology and Palceontology. 477 



respecting the unconformity of the Tertiary to the Jurassic strata, the 

 former being horizontal, while the latter clip at an angle of 35°. 



Under the head of " Lower chalk " we find that Dr. Hochstetter 

 classifies the beds containing Belemnites Aucklandicus, Aucella plicata, 

 &c, at Waikato, Southhead, and those containing the same Belemnite, 

 with Ammonites Novo-Seelandicus, and Inoceramus Haasti at Kawhia- 

 Haven, although Dr. Zittel states, in the preface to the description of 

 these fossils, that the evidence of the Belemnite and the Aucella, as 

 well as of the Placunopsis occurring with the latter, is in favour of 

 the beds being Jurassic, while that of the Ammonite and the 

 Inoceramus indicates on the contrary their Cretaceous age. Certain 

 coal-bearing beds, having a similar unconformable relation to the 

 Tertiary deposits as the Jurassic strata just noticed, are thought by 

 Dr. Hochstetter to represent either the Upper Jurassic or the Lower 

 Cretaceous period, possibly the Wealden. They contain in the 

 Northern Island a Polypodium and an Asplenium, and in the Southern 

 Island (in beds probably of the same age) plants belonging to the 

 genera Neuropteris, Equisetites, Phoenicites, Zamites, and Pecopteris, as 

 well as a Dicotyledonous leaf. 



The lowest member of the Tertiary system is a brown-coal forma- 

 tion ; but it contains an entirely different flora, including two species 

 of Fagus, one of My rti folium, five of Phyllites, &c, all of which, 

 with the other plants, have recently been described by Professor 

 Unger. The overlying marine beds are perhaps more familiar to 

 English geologists than any of the deposits we have mentioned, in 

 consequence of Mr. Walter Mantell's description of them having 

 been published about fifteen years ago, under the auspices of his 

 illustrious father, in the ' Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society.' 

 They include an older and a younger series ; the former is considered 

 by Dr. Hochstetter to be probably contemporaneous with the Brown- 

 coal formation, and to include the celebrated Ototara (or Oamaru) series, 

 which the late Professor E. Forbes compared with the Bognor beds, 

 but which Dr. Zittel thinks is much younger. The upper Tertiary 

 deposits are doubtless very recent, but there seems some confusion as 

 to the age of the older series ; probably the beds in some localities 

 may be much older than those in others, although now classified 

 together through imperfect knowledge. 



The Post-tertiary beds of New Zealand include Lignite-bearing 

 strata, Glacier-drift, Marine and Fluviatile drift (including gold-drift), 

 and all the superficial sub-aerial deposits usually found. But the 

 most remarkable of the sub-aerial formations are undoubtedly the 

 various results of volcanic energy exerted in different ways, and it 

 would occupy the whole of this chronicle were we to attempt to give 

 even an abstract of Dr. Hochstetter's description of them. 



We have hitherto said nothing of the physical geography of New 

 Zealand in relation to its geology. Dr. Hochstetter remarks that the 

 three Islands belong geologically to one and the same mass, formed 

 on both sides of a central axis, or axis of upheaval, ranging from 

 N.E. to S.W. ; but this is crossed at right angles by a line of de- 

 pression in the direction of the straits which separate the islands, 



