NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



185 



tricts, on the contrary, being better known, from the number of European 

 settlers in them. 



Through the arrangements of the General and Provincial Governments Dr. 

 Hochstetter was enabled in a comparatively short ^time to travel over and to 

 examine the larger portion of the province south of Auckland, extending as far 

 as Lake Taupo and the Tongariro Volcano, the boundaries between this pro- 

 vince and those of Wellitigtou and Hawke's Bay. 



The observations have, with the able assistance of Mr. Drummond Hay, ex- 

 tended from the east to the west coast ; and the numerous peaks and ranges 

 have afforded facilities for fixing with satisfactory accuracy, by means of mag- 

 netic bearings, on the basis of points previously fixed by the nautical survey of 

 Capt. Drury on the coast line, all the great natural features of this portion of 

 the country. A great number of barometrical observations have afforded the 

 means of ascertaining the heights of mountains and plains in the interior, which 

 can thus be calculated with accuracy by the aid of corresponding daOy obser- 

 vations, taken in Auckland by Colonel Mould. Photographic and other views 

 of great interest have been taken ; and a large number of exceedingly valuable 

 sketches have been contributed by the talented pencil of Mr. C. Heaphy, for 

 future publication in a geological atlas. Dr. Hochstetter acknowledges also 

 the assistance he has received from Mr. J. Crawford, at Wellington ; Mr. A. 

 S. Atkinson, of Taranaki; Mr. Triphook, of Hawke's Bay ; Mr. H. T. Kemp, 

 of the Bay of Islands ; to the missionaries ; and to almost innumerable friends 

 in Auckland. 



The first striking characteristic of the geology of the province of Auckland, 

 and probably of the whole of tlie northern island of New Zealand, is the absence 

 of the primitive, plutonic, and metamorphic formations, as granite, gneiss, 

 mica-slate, and the like. " I have been informed by Mr. Heaphy," says Dr. 

 Hochstetter, " that these rocks are of wide-spread extent in the Middle Island, 

 forming mountain-ranges of great altitude, covered with perpetual snow, and 

 reaching in Mount Cook probably to thirteen thousand feet." The rocks of 

 these formations contain the principal metallic riches of the earth. Therefore 

 we cannot hope to find these riches developed in the highest degree in the 

 Northern Island ; but as other formations also contain metalliferous veins, there 

 may be found many mines worth working in the rocks I am about to describe. 



The oldest rock I have met with in the province of Auckland belongs to the 

 primary* formation. It is of very variable character, sometimes being more 

 argillaceous, of a dark blue colour — when decomposed, yellowish brov/n, the 

 colour generally presented on the surface — and more or less distinctly stratified 

 like clay-slate, at Maraitai on the Waitemata ; at other times the siliceous 

 element preponderates, and, from the admixture of oxide of iron, the rock has 

 a red, jasper-like appearance, at Wailieki, Manganese Point. In other localities 

 it is more distinctly arenaceous, resembling the old sandstones of the Silurian 

 and Devonian systems, called grauwacke, at Taupo, on the Hauraki Gulf. 



As no fossils have yet been found in this formation in New Zealand, it is 

 impossible to state the exact age. I am, however, of opinion that these argil- 

 laceous siliceous rocks will be found to correspond with the oldest Silurian 

 strata of Europe, 



The existence and great extent of this formation are of considerable import- 

 ance to this province, as all the metalliferous veins hitherto discovered, or likely 

 to be hereafter found, occur in rocks of this formation. 



To these rocks belong the copper-pyrites, which has been worked for some 

 years at the Kawau and Great Barrier, the manganese (psilomelan) at Waihcki, 

 and the gold-bearing quartz at Coromandel. 



* The word primary is used throughout as an equivalent term to our PalDsozoic. 

 VOL. III. 2 A 



