52 
and in other parts of New Zealand. In the chronological arrange- 
ment of the strata and formations it was chiefly observations of 
the stratigraphical order of the different beds that directed my judge- 
ment. Palaeontology , which in Europe, in the case of districts 
laying close together and thoroughly explored, is the surest 
guide for determining the relative age of the strata , affords upon New 
Zealand but few aids to judgment. The fossils found in favourable 
localities upon the extensive area , — where geological explorations 
have but commenced, and where the soil is laid bare merely by 
natural openings , such as avc find them on sea-coasts , river banks, 
mountain slips etc. — admit, according to the present standard of 
science , of no other conclusions than such as have reference to the 
grand epochs in the history of the earths development. The re- 
searches upon New Zealand and upon the Australian and South 
American Continents have not as yet progressed so far, that accord- 
ing to palaeontological criteria a more detailed comparison might be 
drawn between the range of the various formations of the extensive di- 
stricts upon the Southern Hemisphere; nor does palaeontology, as yet, 
afford a method , according to which for two continents so far apart 
as Australia and Europe, the synchronism of two strata might be 
proven. The first requisite is the establishment of at least the 
main features of a geography of plants and animals for the older 
geological periods also; we must first become acquainted with the 
palaeozoic provinces in the same measure as we have gradually 
become acquainted Avitli the neozoic districts of their distribution; 
— then, and not till then, Avill it be possible to decide, how far 
a comparison according to mere palaeontological principles is at all 
feasible. Prof. Agassiz 1 is of opinion , that the mere comparison of 
the fossils of America with those of Europe justifies him in infer- 
ring, that between animals which lived at a great distance from 
each other, no specific identity can be traced, even though they 
be coeval; that, on the contrary, species of the same family, be- 
longing to different geological epochs, are more closely related to 
1 Agassiz: Ann. Rep. of the Museum of comparative Zoology, Boston 1862. 
