APRIL — SEPT. 1859.] the Province of Auckland. 135 



for pieces of gold and silver, showing thus how well they have 

 learnt the lesson taught them by the example of the " pakeha." 



The subterranean passages of the rivers in the Pehiope and 

 Mairoa district are highly characteristic of the limestone forma- 

 tion. The limestone rocks, fissured and channeled, are penetrat- 

 ed by the water, and the streams run below the limestone upon 

 the surface of the argillaceous strata, which I have before men- 

 tioned as underlying the limestone. This also explains the scar- 

 city of water on the limestone plateau which divides the sources 

 of the Waipa and Mokau rivers. The plateau is covered with a 

 splendid growth of grass, and would form an excellent cattle run 

 but for the deep funnel-shaped holes which everywhere abound. 

 The Natives call them " tomo." They are similar to the holes 

 which occur in the limestone downs in England, and on the Karst 

 mountain on the shore of the Adriatic Gulf, where they are called 

 " dolines." 



The third and uppermost stratum of the older tertiary formation 

 consists of beds of fine fossiliferous sandstone, in which quarries of 

 good building stone may be found. There are whole ranges paral- 

 lel to the primary mountains which seem to consist of this sand- 

 tone. I will mention only the Tapui-ivahine range, about 2000 feet 

 above the level of the sea, in which is the pass from the Mokau to 

 the Whanganui country. 



Without a map on a large scale, which I have had no time to pre- 

 pare, it would be useless to enter more minutely now into a des- 

 cription of the various localities in which the different formations 

 occur. I may, however, mention that limestone and brown coal 

 have been found in places to the North of Auckland, in the dis- 

 tricts from Cape Rodney to the North Cape. 



The horizontal beds of sandstone and marls which form the cliffs 

 of the Waitemata, and extend in a Northerly direction towards 

 Kawau, belong to a newer tertiary formation, and, instead of coal, 

 have only thin layers of lignite. A characteristic feature of this 

 Auckland tertiary formation is the existence of beds of volcanic 

 ashes, which are here and there interstratified with the ordinary 

 tertiary layers. 



I must say no more on the tertiary sedimentary formations, in 



