Canterbury and Westland. 299 



the Cobden limestones, the whole having a thickness of at least 5000 

 feet. The lowest beds consist of breccia, often very coarse, and having 

 the appearance of being derived from morainic accumulations. They are 

 succeeded by arcose micaceous sandstones and shales, with a number 

 of coal seams inter stratified with them, of which the largest one has 

 -an average thickness of 15 feet. Clays more or less micaceous cover 

 them, containing a number of fossils, of which the following are the 

 principal ones : — Fusus, Murex, JPanopcea, Cardium, Ostrea, Inoceramus, 

 Terebratula, Kleinia conjuncta (Hutton). I was told when visiting last 

 the Brunner mines that an ammonite had been found in these clays, 

 but my informant did not know what had become of the specimen. 

 Upon the clays very thick beds of ferruginous sandstone, with con- 

 cretions of clay ironstones, have been deposited, which appear to be un- 

 f ossilif erous. These again are overlaid by greensands, sometimes quite 

 black from grains of glauconite, which then appear to form the whole 

 mass. The greensands are covered in their turn by dark marls gradually 

 getting lighter m colour, upon which finally a more or less glauconitic 

 limestone reposes, generally described as the Cobden limestone, and 

 forming the uppermost bed of the whole series. It contains some 

 shells and a number of Echinodermata, of which the following are the 

 principal ones : — Scalaria, Inoceramus, Leda, Ostrea, Lima, JPecte?i, 

 Terebratula, Nummelites, Macropneustes spatangiforinis (Hutton), 

 JUacropneustes cordatus (Hutton), Macropneustes Australis (Hutton), 

 Eupatagus Greyi (Hutton), Meoma brevipetalata (Hutton), Schizaster 

 Lyoni (Hutton), Turbinolia. I have lately looked over the fossils, 

 collected by me in this formation as far back as 1860 and 1865, and 

 have been much struck by the absence of all the leading fossils of the 

 -eastern side, such as Ostrea, Trigonia, Cucullcea, and many others 

 overlying the coal seams ; whilst the Cardium of the Grey is also a 

 different species from the one found in the co-related beds of the 

 "Waipara. 



More to the south the strata belonging to tbe same horizon 

 succeed each other in the following order. The lowest deposits of 

 the whole series examined by me on both banks of the Paringa river, 

 are again formed of conglomerate, arcose, micaceous coal sandstone, 

 and shales, with small seams of coal, forming the highest ridge of the 

 small coast ranges. This series is overlaid by green sands, arenaceous 

 sands or sandstones of a rather incoherent texture, containing some- 

 times concretions of ferruginous limestone, upon which numerous 

 coulees of melaphyre follow, alternating with brecciated beds with 



