C.— 13. 
24 
whole area of the higher part of Napoleon Hill. North of Napoleon Hill, the main or south branch 
of Noble’s Creek, has cut these gravels away, and laid bare, along its valley and lower slopes of the ad- 
joining hills, the underlying and less auriferous series. Also, the hill-tops to the north-west and 
north of Napoleon Hill retain areas of the same rich gravels ; but the beds since deposit have been 
more elevated towards the north-east than in the south-west part, and thus towards the Big 
Grey the areas of the remaining patches of the higher beds are less. 
In the Little Grey and Inangahua Valleys these higher beds of the Older Pliocene or Upper 
Miocene gravels appear to be absent — at least have not been discriminated. Possibly the gravels 
capping the higher part of Merrijigs Hill may be properly regarded as belonging to this part of 
the senes. 
(i b .) “ Old-man Botlom .” — These beds have a wider area of distribution than the Humphrey’s 
Gully gravels. They extend from the Township of Boss along the front hills, forming the lower 
western slopes of the mass of Mount Greenland, and, at the same time, cap ’the auriferous slates 
forming the higher part of that mountain. They are not elsewhere seen on the southern side of the 
Hokitika Valley, but appear in the eastern tributaries of the Kanieri Biver, and form the lower 
or south-eastern part of the gravel portion of the Humphrey’s Gully Bange. They appear at Fox’s 
and Stony Hill, at Duffer’s and Greek’s Creeks, and generally over the higher parts of the Waimea 
Hills to the head of German Gully, Maori Gully, and the right-hand branches of the Waimea, 
south-west of Callaghan’s Hill. The lower beds appear along both banks of the Greenstone below 
the township ; and at Maori Point they form an isolated conical hill, that on account of its greater 
elevation has never been overspread by glacier detritus or river-gravels of more modern date. They 
are largely developed from Cameron’s Terrace across Fuchsia Creek, and along the range of which 
Marsden Hill forms the western part. They are or have been spread over almost the whole of the 
New Biver area, and between the south continuation of the Cobden limestone and the sea they 
have, between Saltwater Creek and Greymouth, a very considerable development. 
These gravels constitute the fundamental rocks that underlie the younger and more superficial 
deposits in the No Town Hills, and the broad bolt of country thence stretching to the Big Grey 
shows these gravels bounded by younger rocks to the north-west and the south-east. 
Along the south-east side of the Little Grey Valley they form a strip of country from three to 
four miles wide, that, commencing within the Blackwater and Big Biver Watershed, thence extends 
to Slab-lmt Creek. Beyond this, the same beds are largely developed on the watershed between the 
source of (jhe Little Grey and the Inangahua, below Beefton, and in the valley of Devil’s Creek, and 
along the east side of the Inangahua Valley, from the upper part of Fryingpan Greek to and beyond 
Landing Creek and Coal Creek, on the same line extended in the direction of the Duller above the 
Inangahua Junction. 
At one or two places in the Inangahua Valley, gold- workings are carried on in these rocks, 
but though their auriferous character cannot be denied, they are not rich enough to have afforded 
hitherto payable workings at many places. The concentrates of these gravels have made a great 
number of creek and valley bottoms famous for the amount of gold found in them, and there are 
hopes that when large supplies of water can be brought to operate upon these gravels they will 
pay to work at many places, and at some places pay well. 
(c.) Brown Sands . — These beds are seen on the southern banks of the Hokitika, below the bridge 
at Kanieri township, and in the Greenstone Valley, in the Twelve-mile Creek (No Town Creek), 
and in the banks of the Ahaura, at and above the township. Elsewhere they appear to be absent. 
These sands sometimes contain scattered pebbles and bands of pebbly conglomerates, and in the 
Greenstone Valley thick beds of rather coarse granite conglomerate. Near Maori Point they have a 
■considerable thickness. 
IV. — Lower Miocene. 
(a.) Blue Fossiliferous Sands and Marly Clays . — These beds are found in the southern part 
of the district, along the western slopes of Mount Greenland, from the Mikonui to the Totara 
Bivers, and between Donnelly’s Creek and the Totara form a range about l.COOft. above sea-level. 
They are to a considerable extent developed along the northern side of the Kanieri Valley, and the 
south-eastern slopes of the Humphrey's Gully Bange and Mount McKay. Throughout the Waimea 
district they arc developed from Fox's to Staffordtown, and from Ballarat Ilill to Kapitea Creek. 
They, at Kumara, show as the bottom on which rests the lower gravels that underlie the river-gravels 
under the glacier deposits. And they appear in Donegal Creek, six miles to the eastward, and 
generally on the southern bank of the Tereinakau, between the Greenstone Bridge and the sea. 
From the mouth of the Teremakau to the sources of New Biver, and from Maori Point on 
the Greenstone to Stillwater Creek in the Grey Valley, these beds form the floor on which rests the 
various gravels and glacier deposits that appear on the surface. 
Between the limestone ranges and the coast-line they stretch north to the mouth of the Grey 
Biver, and in the Grey Valley are met with under the “ Old-man ” gravels of the No Town hills. 
Further to the north-east, in the Grey and Inangahua Valleys, they are not known. On the coast 
between the Grey and the Duller they lie as a long narrow strip between the limestone range or 
plateau and the foot of the Paparoa Mountains, till passing to the northwards of Charleston and 
the Nile Biver they reach close to the coast-line, and at the mouth of the Totara Biver they under- 
lie the black-sand beds and other gravel deposits to the foot of the granite mountains seven miles 
distant. 
Between Gape Foulwind and the end of the cliffs towards Westport they show in section, and 
exhibit strata in some places abounding in fossils. North of the Buller the same beds are not 
clearly displayed, except it may be in one particular creek on the Buller Boad, between the foot of 
the gorge and Westport. 
