48 
late, if not quite recent strata, in which those remains were found. 
He took occasion to add some general remarks on the natural cha- 
racter of New Zealand , comparing this remarkable insular province, 
on account of the prevalence of fernweeds, lyeopodiacem and other 
cryptogamians, on account of its gigantic birds and the absence 
of every kind of mammalia, with the state of European countries 
during the coal and trias-period : in a similar manner as Australia 
with its Cj/kadece 5 Araukariw and marsupial mammalia reminds us 
of the oolite-period ; the Galapagos Islands with their graminivorous 
land and sea-saurians , with their reptiles and tortoises, of the 
age of the Itjuanodon or the wealden-period. 
James Dana (in 184!)), in the admirable volume comprising 
the Geology of the United States Exploring Expedition under 
Ch. Wilkes 1889—1842, gave a brief sketch of the geological 
features of the country adjacent to the Bay of Islands, thus 
acquainting us with the third volcanic zone of New Zealand, the 
Bay-of-lslands zone. 
Dr. Cr. A. Mantel! (in 1850) published in the Quarterly Jour- 
nal a geological sketch of the East coast of South Island from the 
volcanic Bank’s Peninsula to the Molyneux River, in which he 
distinguishes volcanic formations , clay-slate , quartz-conglomerates 
and various other fossiliferous sedimentary formations. It is in 
this treatise also, that for the first time fossils were described 
and represented, and different groups of strata were distinguished 
according to the different fossils found in them. The “ Otatara 
limestone ”, resembling the cretaceous rocks of Eaxoe and Mas- 
triclit, with Terebratula Gucdteri Mant., with a body resembling a 
belemnite (without however being a belemnite), and a series of 
foraminifera , which by Mr. R. Jones were partly identified with 
species of the chalk formation, corresponds, according to Mr. 
MantelVs views, to the upper cretaceous or to the eocene formation. 
The clayey strata of Onekakara and Wanganui (North Island), on 
the other hand, containing chiefly living species, such as Turitella 
rosea Quoy , Struthiolaria straminea Low., Fusus australis Quoy , Murex 
Zealandicus Quoy, Verms mesodesma Gray , Pecten asperrimus Lam. etc. , 
