Canterbury and Westland. 323 



Igneous Eocks. 

 No igneous rocks have been found in this formation in the Provinces 

 of Canterbury and Westland, so that the volcanic disturbances which 

 we were able to trace in the formations previously described had 

 already ceased in this part of New Zealand. However, Captain 

 Hutton believes that both in the North and South, in Marlborough, 

 and Otago, volcanic action was not dormant during the deposition of 

 the Pareora formation. He refers the basaltic tufas between Lyndon 

 and the Hanmer plains in Marlborough, and the basaltic rocks of 

 Moeraki, to that period, both of which I consider, however, to be of 

 greater age, and to belong to the Oamaru formation. 



Age and Thickness. 

 The beds belonging to this formation contain a large number of 

 species of which, according to Captain Hutton, who has carefully 

 studied them, 37 per cent, are identical with living forms, and con- 

 sequently they ought to be classed as upper miocene. Con- 

 sidering that we are not yet fully acquainted with the molluscan 

 fauna of our seas, except with that of the Littoral Zone, it is very 

 possible, that when dredging operations can be carried on on a 

 large scale, many of the species we now believe to be extinct, will be 

 found still living. Consequently the number of living species will 

 be augmented. In such a case, the age of the Pareora formation 

 would be lower pliocene. 



Although in many localities the beds of which this formation is 

 composed are only a few hundred feet thick, in others, as for instance, 

 in the middle and lower Waipara and the "Waihao, they have an 

 aggregate thickness of as many thousand feet, arenaceous material in 

 the form of sands having been deposited in great abundance along the 

 coasts in a shallow sea. 



The name Pareora formation was first applied by me to these beds, 

 in 1864, when examining the Pareora river, where they are well 

 developed, this designation being adopted by Dr. Hector and Captain 

 Hutton. It includes tho Kanieri group (lower portion), of Captain 

 Hutton, and the Awatere group (upper portion of von Hochstetter). 



