Canterbury and Westland. 279 



accessible peaks. South of Mount Cook, the Mount Torlesse rocks 

 strike more towards the interior, the boundary between them and the 

 Waihao formation passing near the sources of the Ahuriri river to the 

 neighbourhood of the Lindis Pass. They are here separated from the 

 large outlier occurring on both banks of the Hunter river by a small 

 zone of the "Waihao formation, which crowns the ranges east of the 

 Hunter river. Another outlier is situated not far from the "West 

 Coast, south of Jackson's Bay. 



Thickness and Age. 



Before concluding the somewhat imperfect sketch of this extensive 

 formation, which has at least a thickness of 25,000 feet, and besides 

 the fossils enumerated, contains only two other small and rather 

 indistinct exuviae, of which one resembles a tentaculite and a few 

 tracks of anellides, I wish to point out that it is far from my 

 thoughts to say that the whole of this formation is of carboniferous 

 age. It is very possible, and even more than probable, that this huge 

 assemblage of beds, by which it is formed may belong to several 

 distinct periods, ranging from palaeozoic to lower mezozoic ; but owing 

 to the want of fossils, such as have been found at Eeefton (of devonian 

 age), at Richmond in the Province of Nelson, and in the Moonlight 

 range and other localities in Otago (of triassic age), or again in the 

 south-eastern district of Otago (Captain Hutton's Putataka formation), 

 it is impossible to divide this formation in Canterbury for the present at 

 at least, into smaller groups, the more so as such attempts have hitherto 

 only brought confusion into our geology. Nothing remains to be done 

 but to make further detail examinations on a systematic plan, and to 

 follow some of the more characteristic beds as far as they can be 

 traced. 



Igneous Bocks. 



I have already alluded to the diabasic beds and their ashes, which 

 are interstratified in many horizons between the strata of purely 

 sedimentary origin ; besides them, are a few dykes of hyperite, which 

 might have been injected when the huge foldings were formed. In 

 one instance, in Coal Creek, Rangitata, I found a bed of melaphyre,, 

 somewhat amygdaloidal, interbedded between two strata of sandstone, 

 but it had probably been forced between them at a much later date, 

 belonging to the formation next to be considered. 



