Canterbury and Westland. 303 



layers of brecciated wacke. The latter has also a compact black 

 matrix and angular pieces of melaphyre, wacke or compact rocks 

 of indistinct character, generally of reddish or brownish tints, often 

 resembling porcelain jasper, are enclosed in it. The enclosed 

 pieces are often surrounded by calcareous spar, also appearing in 

 strings and veins, and filling up all the interstices. Small cavities in 

 the calcareous spar are again filled with zeolites, of which crystals of 

 apophyllite, sometimes with a highly lammellar structure, and of a 

 beautiful brick-red colour, are most conspicuous. Other Zeolites, as 

 for instance, stilbite and analcime, are also present. In the coulees of 

 melaphyre, near the contact with the brecciated wacke, pieces of the 

 latter are usually enclosed. At the southern extremity of the mela- 

 phyres at Tauperikaka Point, the rocks have a compact black matrix, 

 with greenish or bluish tinges. Besides very small crystals of horn- 

 blende, they contain also grains of magnetic iron and minute crystals 

 of felspar, too small for recognition. They have a somewhat tabular, 

 but sometimes an irregular columnar structure, and are here of very 

 great thickness ; as, notwithstanding the coulees are standing at a very 

 high angle, they not only form the coast-line, but reach far into the 

 sea in the form of small islets and rocks, against which the surf breaks 

 with vehemence. South of Jackson's Bay, both melaphyres and 

 brecciated wacke occur, but my stay was so very short that I could 

 devote no time to a closer examination, beyond observing that in 

 lithological character they resembled the rocks previously described, 

 and that they formed a considerable portion of the coast. Finally, I 

 wish to say a word on the nomenclature, and the changes which are 

 necessarily to be made in it, in order that all the beds belonging to 

 the same formation may be brought together. Although Professor von 

 Hochstetter gave the name to this formation in his synopsis of the 

 New Zealand formations, he followed only Professor Owen, who basing 

 his opinion upon the occurrence of Plesiosaurus Australis, thought 

 that the beds in which this saurian occurred were probably Jurassic, an 

 opinion which I shared till the other fossil contents became known to 

 me. I then was forced to the conclusion, that as high up as the AVeka 

 Pass stone they could not be separated from the series containing not 

 only the Grey and Shag point Coal Measures, but also the older Brown 

 coal series found all over New Zealand. In fact, there is enough 

 evidence before us to lead us to believe that the Buller and Pakawau 

 Coal Measures, and also all the older Brown coalfields in the Provinces 

 of Otago, Nelson, and Auckland, which latter were hitherto classed 

 as older tertiary, have to be included in the "Waipara formation. 



