Canterbury and Westland. 273 



contain the remains of a plant closely allied to Tceniopteris, are 

 nevertheless of great age, and if we adopt Professor M'Coy's 

 ^conclusions for the Mounj; Potts fossil shells, at least carboniferous. 

 Moreover, there is no doubt that they are of the same age as the 

 formations which in New South "Wales contain the fine coal-fields. 

 The relations of these palaeozoic beds are shown, for comparison in 

 section 4, and whilst the more westerly Mount Potts beds exhibit only 

 one huge anticlinal arrangement, those in the Clent Hills have under- 

 gone greater flexures, of which in a distance of three miles, six 

 synclinals are clearly exposed in Pern Gruliy. The same sequence of 

 the palaeozoic sedimentary beds is shown in all the sections I examined, 

 of which several of the annexed sections give the details, and to which 

 I beg to refer. 



As before observed, the more we advance towards the Canterbury 

 plains, the more we are sure to find the conglomerates in exposed 

 positions, having by their hardness, without doubt, resisted most 

 effectually the disintegrating influences here at work for numberless 

 ages. I have mentioned that the chocolate-coloured slates which overlie 

 the fossiliferous beds forming the summit of the Mount Potts range, 

 reach the Rangitata river-bed five miles more to the south. In order 

 to show the huge dimensions of the foldings, I may state that these 

 peculiarly coloured slates, with a series of more silicious beds, are 

 again found on the opposite banks of the Eangitata, and are well 

 developed in Butler's Creek, where it leaves the ranges, and, still 

 further to the south, they cross the Forest Creek near its sources. 

 Between these localities and the summit of the Southern Alps, I have 

 been able to trace them five times more (they may occur still oftener), 

 always standing at a high angle, and showing well the clearly defined 

 anticlinal and synclinal arrangement of the strata. Beds of conglo- 

 merate and shales are always associated with them forming a lower 

 horizon, and also the texture of the sandstones is always of the same 

 character, having either a white kaolin-like matrix, or being of blueish 

 or greenish colours with a hard semi-crystalline structure. Moreover, 

 these latter are always true graywacke sandstones, whatever their 

 ether characteristics may be, small angular pieces of slate being 

 enclosed in them. These pieces are not always of the usual dark 

 bluish tints, but sometimes exhibit reddish and greenish colours, 

 proving that similar slates to those ^ which now alternate with the 

 graywacke sandstones were also existing before this large series of beds 

 was formed. 



