252 Proceedings of the British Association. 



sometimes assumes the character of a roofing slate. On the banks of 

 the rivers Eritonga and Waibo are terraces, or horizontal plateaux, 

 50 feet high, formed of boulders of the oldest trap-rocks, and similar 

 terraces are seen on the sea coast round Cape Palliser, 50 or 60 feet 

 above the sea. Anthracite coal crops out in the small harbour 

 of Wangarrie on the west coast of Middle Island, and there is a 

 thin seam of anthracite in the hard grey sandstone on the east coast 

 of the Northern Island. Limestone is described as occurring in 

 the harbours of Kauria and Waingaroa, on the west coast of the 

 Northern Island ; it is crystalline, and contains fossils of the genera 

 Pecten, Ostrea, Terebratula, and Spatangus. Limestone is also found 

 on the river Kaipara in the Bay of Islands, and Copper pyrites 

 have been obtained from the great Barrier Island, where it forms veins 

 in the clay slate. The coasts are in many places fringed with recent 

 horizontal sedimentary deposits, consisting of loam, with fragments 

 of wood and tree ferns, blades of the typha, &c. ; and on the northern 

 island the coast is often formed of volcanic conglomerate, containing 

 magnetic iron sand near Cape Egmont, and turritellse and oyster 

 shells at the harbour of Parenga; near Tauranga, it is composed 

 of decomposing tufa, containing lignite and shells of Pectunculus, 

 Natica, Pyrula and Ancillaria. The small rocky islands of trachyte, 

 lying off the coast of Northern Island, also bear marks of wave-action 

 to the height of 100 feet above the present sea level. On the 

 western coast of this island formations of sand are now accumulating, 

 driven over the forests by the prevalent westerly gales. The interior 

 of the Northern Island affords but a scanty vegetation, and the 

 surface is everywhere covered with ordinary volcanic productions, 

 derived from the lofty central group of mountains, some of which are 

 extinct, others still active volcanoes ; the lava appears to have been 

 principally erupted from the base of the craters. The highest of 

 these craters are Tongariro, 6,000 feet in elevation, according to 

 Mr. Bidwell, and Mount Egmont about 9,000 feet, by Dr. Dieffen- 

 bach's thermometrical observations. There are also many lakes 

 which appear to occupy ancient craters. The mountain chains of 

 the Middle Island are supposed to consist of primary rocks ; quartzose 

 sandstone and greywacke are met with at the height of 3,000 

 feet ; the lofty pyramidal summits are covered with snow, and deep 



