268 Geology of 



Hutton's Putataka formation, as they are actually older than his- 

 so-called Matai formation, which, he places to the west of it. The 

 attached sections — No. 1 and 2 on section plate No. 2 — offer all 

 necessary details in illustration of this point. 



Now, when we examine the relations of the beds which he assigns 

 to his Maitai formation, with those of his Kaikoura formation, situated 

 to the west of the former, including the whole of Mount Torlesse, 

 we observe that exactly the same sequence and character are met 

 with in both ; that, in fact, they both are portions of a series of f old& 

 in which a succession of chocolate-coloured slates and cherts form 

 a good horizon for recognition. Thus, between Russell's Hills 

 (northern side of the Malvern Hills) and Mount Torlesse, a huge 

 anticlinal occurs, the same rocks appearing on both sides, but 

 dipping in opposite directions. — (See Section-plate No. 2, section 

 No. 3.) Consequently, also, in this case, Captain Hutton's classi- 

 fication, based upon his observations made in a hasty visit to 

 the district, does not hold good, and the whole series has to 

 be included in the same formation, which I named the Mount 

 Torlesse formation, from the large mountain system where I first 

 studied it attentively. In several other localities I have been able tc* 

 examine the relations of the different beds to each other in detail, 

 always obtaining the same results. Amongst them, the most 

 interesting one is situated in the Clent Hills, where I found, as far 

 back as 1861, a series of beds, containing numerous impressions of 

 ferns, and in the upper course of the Pangitata in Mount Potts, 

 where I made a good collection of fossil shells. These collections 

 were sent by me to Professor M'Coy in Melbourne for description, 

 and I was informed by that gentleman that the former, the ferns, 

 were of Jurassic, and the latter, mostly brachiopods, of upper Devonian 

 or Lower Carboniferous age, both being identical with exuviae found 

 in the New South "Wales Coal-fields. Although at the time I believed 

 this Clent Hill series somewhat younger in age than the Spirifera beds^ 

 I demurred at this definition, owing to the fact that the position and 

 sequence of the strata and the character of the rocks of which both are 

 composed, are alike. Since then it has been shown, and as I think with 

 conclusive evidence, that both these fossiliferous strata — the Spirifera 

 and Pecopteris beds — occurring together in the New South Wales coal- 

 fields, are of the same age and alternate with each other. The occur- 

 rence of Tamiopteris, which hitherto had been considered only of 

 secondary age, seems to speak against a palaeozoic origin ; however, I 



