18 
THE GEOLOGY OE AUCKLAND. 
III.—TERTIARY FORMATIONS. 
I proceed now to speak of the Tertiary period, strata oi 
which, of very various characters, occupy a large portion of the 
Northern Island. The various tertiary strata are found for the 
most part in a horizontal position—a remarkable fact, from 
which we may conclude that even the numerous volcanic erup¬ 
tions which took place during and after the period of their 
deposition, had not power enough to dislocate the whole system, 
but merely to produce local disturbances. 
The tertiary period must be divided into two distinct forma¬ 
tions, which may perhaps correspond to the European Eocene 
and Miocene . There is an older formation which is found 
principally on the West Coast, and in the interior, on both sides 
of the primary ranges, and a newer one which may be called the 
Auckland Tertiary Formation . 
You will probably be interested to have some more minute 
description of the different strata of the older of these forma¬ 
tions, as to this belong the Brown-Coal seams, to the discovery 
of which I am indebted for the opportunity of investigating the 
Geology of this Province, and on the intelligent working of 
which I believe very much of the future welfare of this Province 
depends. 
The Brown-Coal Formation is of a very considerable extent, 
both in the Northern and Middle Islands of New Zealand, and 
is of similar character everywhere. 
Some months ago I furnished a report on the Coalfield in the 
neighbourhood of Auckland, in the Drury and Hunua districts, 
of which I will repeat here the principal points. The Drury 
coal belongs to a very good sort of brown coal—to the so-called 
Glanzkohle , with conchoidal fracture. I was not able to convince 
myself of the existence of different series of seams, one above 
the other, on different levels. I am much rather of opinion 
that the same seam, disturbed at its level, occurs at the different 
localities in the Drury and Hunua district, where coal is found. 
The average thickness of that coal seam may be estimated to 
amount fo six feet. The section of the seam at Mr .Fallwelfs 
farm can be taken as a fair average. 
The seam consists there of three portions, the upper part a 
laminated coal of inferior quality, one foot; then a band of 
