90 
GEOLOOT. 
slaty cleavage, which passes through them at a considerable angle 
to the planes of stratification. Their general strike (with a dip 
of 75 degrees to 85 degrees towards the west) is north and south. 
More towards the axis of the chain we meet with blackish, blue, 
and greyish clay slates, which underlie these sandstones and con¬ 
glomerates. I was unable, notwithstanding the greatest exertions, 
to find any sign of fossils in these rocks, the sandstones of which 
have the character of a true greywake, so that it is impossible at 
present to assign to them their geological age, which, therefore, 
must be left to the future, when more time can he devoted to a 
minute search amongst these apparently oldest of the sedimentary 
rocks. 
Leaving Lake Roto-iti, and following its outlet, I observed that 
the river bed had worked its way through a large accumulation 
of the great drift, or boulder formation, lying in places 500 feet 
high above the river bed, and forming occasionally not less than 
eight terraces of different relative heights, and of which the 
uppermost is the highest. In these deposits (till) we find the 
debris of the ranges on both sides, plutonic, eruptive, metamorphic, 
and sedimentary rocks, imbedded in loam and gravel, and ex¬ 
hibiting now and then somewhat rough lines of stratification. 
The pieces, some of them of very large size, are partly rounded 
and partly angular, showing that they have not been transported 
by rivers, but rather by icebergs or glaciers, according to the now 
generally received and ingenious theory on this subject. It is 
striking, indeed, that in the Northern Island of New Zealand we 
do not meet with this formation, which therefore here, as in South 
America, is not found to the northward of the 41st degree of 
south latitude. 
Having only time for a cursory examination, I was not so for¬ 
tunate as to find any fossils, but I am convinced that, upon closer 
examination, they will (although generally very rare) be found in 
this large mass of detritus, which extends as far as Nelson, and 
there forms, at the eastern side of the harbour, hills attaining to 
an altitude of several hundred feet. The declivities of these hills 
slope abruptly to the sea, and have, as a base, a greenish clay 
marl, in which a few small seams of lignite exist. 
On examining the country around the lake, I was much struck 
with a large level opening towards the north, in which, upon a 
careful view, I found the remains of terraces stretching towards 
the opening in the eastern chain, which leads to the Wairau, and 
is commonly known as Cotterell’s, or the old pass. I was unable 
to follow this opening, it not coming within my field of ob¬ 
servation. 
Upon examining the Roto-iti valley towards the west, where, 
near the conical hill, it narrows very much, I found that the 
terraces on the western side of the hill did not at all correspond 
m appearance with the excavations made by the waters in the 
m 
