Correspondence — Dr. Hector. 
135 
swarming with life, myriads of fossil Shells may be collected from the 
cliffs, whilst still further on, at Hordwell, we have beds showing 
that the land arose again, affording suitable conditions for the 
growth of luxuriant palms, and was the haunt of the alligator, 
turtle, and other reptiles, which are now confined to tropical 
countries . 1 
COERESPOITDEITCE. 
THE OTOTARA SERIES, NEW ZEALAND. 
Sir, — I n the last received Geological Magazine for August Capt. 
Hutton takes exception to my note appended to Mr. H. Woodward’s 
paper on the “ Fossil Crab of New Zealand.” 
One of his criticisms I admit to be correct. No distinct Saurian 
bones have been found on the West Coast. The error arose from 
an oversight in correcting the press, as the remark under letter h 
was (Saurian beds, Ammonites, etc.), by which I meant to indicate 
the horizon in the East Coast section of the same formation, as 
proved by associated fossils. 
His other criticisrn relates to the presence of Secondary fossils in 
the Ototara group; but he evidently confounds this with his Oamaru 
formation, under which are included strata of both later and earlier 
date, while localities are excluded where Secondary fossils are 
found. Thus he places the Greensands of the Green Island Brown 
Coal in his Oamaru formation, although they coutain Belemnites, 
Ancyloceras ßostellaria, and other Cretaceous forms. His Oamaru 
Cape beds I consider to be Miocene, while the Upper Marls at 
Amuri Bluff, which Capt. Hutton places in his Pareora or Miocene 
formation, are the calcareous Greensands that form the upper part 
of the Chalk formation, with Iiwceramus and Pleuronectes Zittelli, 
the latter found ranging through the whole series; while from about 
the middle of the section the humerus of Palceeudyptes antarcticus 
has lately been found by Mr. McKay, making the third locality for 
this fossil bird in New Zealand. Other cases of stratigraphical 
confusion might be stated, showing that we have not yet acquired 
sufficient data for classifying our later formations by per-centages of 
fossils to the exclusion of stratigraphical evidence. 
Geological Survey Office, James Hector. 
Wellington, 10 th Nov., 1876. 
MR. MILNE ON FLOATING ICE. 
Sir, — I am sorry that Mr. Milne should think that I .made an 
“ unfair comparison ” in testing the behaviour of the floating cone 
he had figured, by means of a tetrahedron. “ Comparisons are ” 
always “odious.” What then must theybe when they are “unfair”? 
And I am the last who would wish intentionally to make unfair ones. 
The truth is that I had not a cone, and so I took the solid nearest in 
its proportions to Mr. Milne’s figure, and I submit that the tetrahedron 
was quite as like an iceberg as the cone ! 
1 See also Report of Mr. Gardner’s Lecture in the January Number of tbe 
Geol. Mag. (p. 23), “ On the Tropical Forests of Hampshire. 
