128 Lecture on the Geology of [No. 9, new series, 



in the Northern and Middle Islands of New Zealand, and is of 

 similar character everywhere. 



Some months ago I furnished a Report on the Coalfield in the 

 neighbourhood of Auckland, in the Drury and Hunua districts, 

 (*of which I will repeat here the principal points. The Drury 

 coal belongs to a very good sort of brown coal — to the so-called 

 Glanzhohle, with conchoidal fracture. I was not able to convince 

 myself of the existence of different series of seams, one above the 

 other on different levels. I am much rather of opinion that the 

 same seam, disturbed in its level, occurs at the different localities 

 in the Drury and Hunua district, where coal is found. The aver- 

 age thickness of that coal seam may be estimated to amount to 

 six feet. The section of the seam at Mr. FallwelFs farm can be 

 taken as a fair average. 



The seam consists there of three portions ; the upper part a 

 laminated coal of inferior quality, one foot ; then a band of shale, 

 two inches ; the middle part coal of a good quality, one and a 

 half feet ; then a band of bituminous shale, six inches ; the low- 

 est part coal of the best quality I have seen, two and a half feet. 

 Thus the whole thickness of the coal itself may be considered to 

 amount to about five feet. The bituminous shale accompanying 

 the coal contains fossil plants, principally leaves of Dicotyledones. 

 It is remarkable that no fossil ferns are found in connection with 

 the Drury coal beds ; it is the more so, as at 'the other locality 

 which I must mention — on the West Coast, seven miles from 

 "Waikato Heads — only fossil ferns, in a most beautiful state of 

 preservation, are imbedded in grey argillaceous strata, alternating 

 with sandstone and small coal seams of, probably, the same geo- 

 logical age as the Drury coal. A considerable number of speci- 

 mens from both localities will, by a future examination, furnish 

 the opportunity for determining the principal features of the Flora 

 of the Brown Coal period in New Zealand. 



The fossil gum found in the coal is a kind of " Retinite," de- 

 rived from a coniferous tree, perhaps related to the Kauri, but it 

 is by no means identical with the Kauri Gum, which is only found 

 in the surface soil in those localities where there have been kauri 

 forests. The fossil gum and gauri gum are very different in their 



