NOTES AND QUERIES. 
185 
tricts, on the contrary, being better known, from the number of European 
settlers in them. 
Tlu-ou^h the arrangements of tlie General and Provincial Governments Dr. 
Hoehstcttor was enabled in a comparatively short 'time to travel over and to 
exainiae tiie larger portion of the province south of Auckland, extending as far 
as Lake Taiii)o and the Tougariro Volcano, the boundaries between this pro- 
vince and those of Wellington and Ilawke's Bay. 
The observations have, witli the able assistance of Mr. Drummond Hay, ex- 
tended from the cast 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 count ry. 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 daily 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. G. 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 innumerabb friends 
in Auckland. 
The first striking characteristic of the geology of the province of Auckland, 
and probably of the whole of the northern island of New Zealand, is the absence 
of the primitive, pbitouie, 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 mountaiu-ranges of great altitude, covered with, perpetual snow, and 
reaching in Mount Cook probably to thirteen thousand feet." The rocks of 
these formations contaui 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 tlie 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 brown, 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 Waiheki, 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 Waiheki, 
and the gold-bearing quartz at Coromandel. 
* The word primary is used throughout as an equivalent term to our Palaeozoic. 
VOL. III. 2 A 
