MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. any 
younger, which he had lattely called the Hokanui system. The 
relative position of these two systems was more easily made out 
in Otago than in Canterbury. The Maitai system was almost 
unfossiliferous, while the Hokanui system often contained 
mesozoic fossils, and was especially distinguished by its plant 
remains. _ The rocks of the two systems were often very 
different, but in other places were difficult to distinguish. He 
quite agreed with Dr. von Haast that the rocks should all be 
united into one system until there was sufficient evidence to 
divide them. Fossils belonging to the Hokanui system had 
been found near the Wairau Gorge, at Mount Potts, and in the 
bed of the Waitaki; and on the strength of this Dr. Hector had 
introduced into his map an enormous syncline filled with 
Hokanui rocks running parallel to the main range of the Alps, 
from the Rangitata to Blenheim. But the strike of the rocks in 
the Upper Rakaia was quite opposed to such a structure, as it 
was almost always more or less N.W.—that is across the strike 
of the supposed syncline. His own idea was that the eastern 
wing of the great N.E. and S.W. geanticlinal, which formed the 
Alps, was thrown into a series of more or less N.W. and S.E. 
folds, like a corrugated iron roof; and that some of the deeper 
of these folds contained rocks ot the Hokanui system, which also 
ran along the outskirts of the mountains from the Malvern Hills 
to Kaikoura: all the rest belonging to the Maitai system. In 
this way he accounted for finding Hokanui fossils far in amongst 
the mountains.—Mr A. Dobson said he had worked a guod deal 
among these rocks, but could not make out the great difference 
in character shown on the government map. He had never 
found any fossils. 
OTAGOCINSTITUTE. 
Dunedin, 14th October, 1884.—D. Petrie, Esq., President, in 
the chair. 
Papers—1. “Notes on some New or Rare New Zealand 
@ishes, by W. Arthur, C.E. 
2. “Notes on the Skeleton and Baleen of a Fin-Whale (4a/- 
enoptera musculus ?) recently acquired by the Otago University 
Museum,” by Professor T. Jeffery Parker. The aniinal from 
which the skeleton described was obtained, was stranded on the 
sands at the entrance of the Waimea River, Nelson. The skele- 
ton and the baleen passed into the possession of Captain Jackson 
Barry, from whom they were purchased by the Museum. 
The skeleton is that of a young animal, all the epiphyses 
being free. The total length is 53ft. 6in. 
A considerable part of the paper consists of a detailed series 
of measurements of the various bones. The following are the 
only characters in which the specimen differs from the Northern 
Fin-Whale (2. musculus), to which species the author considers 
it should be assigned. 
