April — sept. 1859.] the Province of Auckland. 



127 



Jupiter Amnion, and Belemnite as the bolts of the God of Thun- 

 der. The latter, though now first seen in the Antipodes by Euro- 

 peans, have long been known to the Natives of Kawhiaby a much 

 less dignified name, — the old warrior- chief, Nuitone te Pakaru, 

 having told me that the stones I prized so much and collected so 

 greedily, are nothing more than ' roke-kanaej which means the 

 excrement of the fish commonly known amongst the settlers by 

 the name of ' mullot.' In reality, the Belemnite belongs to a 

 creature, long since extinct, which was allied to the now living 

 cuttle-fish. 



Secondary rocks may probably be found in some other parts of 

 the "West Coast, and occur, as I have been kindly informed by the 

 Rev. A. G. Purchas, in the Harbour of Hokianga — but every where 

 of limited superficial extent. 



III. — Tertiary Formations. 



I proceed now to speak of the Tertiary period, strata of which, 

 of very various characters, occupy a large portion of the Northern 

 Island. The various tertiary strata are found for the most part 

 in a horizontal position — a remarkable fact, from which we may 

 conclude that even the numerous volcanic eruptions which took 

 place during and after the period of their deposition, had not 

 power enough to dislocate the whole system, but merely to 

 produce local disturbances. 



The tertiary period must be divided into two distinct formations, 

 which may perhaps correspond to the European Eocene and Mio- 

 cene. There is an older formation which is found principally on 

 the West Coast, and in the interior, on both sides of the primary 

 ranges, and a newer one which may be called the Auckland Ter- 

 tiary Formation. 



You will probably be interested to have some more minute des- 

 cription of the different strata of the older of these formations, as 

 to this belong the Brown- Coal seams, to the discovery of which I 

 am indebted for the opportunity of investigating the Geology of 

 this Province, and on the intelligent working of which I believe 

 very much of the future welfare of this Province depends. 



The Brown- Coal Formation is of very considerable extent both 



