GEOLOGY. 
119 
though I feel it my duty to add, that, from observations I made, I 
am convinced that the seams that are seen in Pakawau are the 
same as those exposed in the Wanganui inlet, and below which, 
tor several hundred feet, the strata, consisting of sand grits and 
pebble beds, are visible. 
_ The strata in this extensive zone strike and dip in several 
directions, forming arcs, of which the upper parts have been 
denuded. Two of these foldings were examined by me; one 
at the West Coast, north of the mouth of the Wanganui inlet, 
following the strata in both directions; and the other south of 
the hill which forms Cape Farewell; besides which I obtained 
numerous sections in the Wanganui harbour itself, the results 
of which are noted in the foregoing table. The greatest dip of 
these strata does not exceed 16 decrees. 
„ o 
The few impressions of fossil flora which I observed in the 
Pakawau coal-bearing strata were all specifically, and probably 
also generically, different from those of the Grey and Puller coal¬ 
fields, and no fossil shells rewarded the most minute research. I 
found near the pah at West Wanganui a piece of silicified wood, 
derived from a large tree; the annual rings were still distinctly 
visible, and it was probably the cast of a portion of some coni¬ 
ferous tree. 
All these strata exhibit a character which leads to the con¬ 
clusion that they originally formed either the delta of a large 
river or an estuary; and it would therefore be interesting to 
discover fossils, which would at once give us an insight into the 
true nature of these deposits. The cretaceous limestones and 
greensands not only lie conformably upon the coal-bearing 
strata, but their succession in sequence is perfectly visible; so 
that there can be no doubt that these coal-bearing strata are 
of the same formation as. the overlying rocks. 
At Cape Farewell we meet with the same rocks as on the western 
side of the Wanganui harbour, striking from south-east to north¬ 
west, with a dip of 22 degrees towards the north-east. Here, 
also,’at the southern side of the promontory, small seams of coal 
are visible, under shingle beds derived from the waste of the crys¬ 
talline chains. . , „ ^ 
Before arriving at West Wanganui I found m several ot the 
rivers, as far as their mouths, and coming from the Whaka- 
marama range, micaceous shales and grits exactly like those of the 
Grey and Puller coal-fields, interspersed amongst granitic and 
metamorphic boulders ; and in the Pakawau river itself I was not 
a little astonished at finding pieces of the same description. s 
thev are in character quite different from those of the West 
Wanganui coal-field, I was led to believe that the Pakawau river 
flowed through strata belonging to the same age as the Grey and 
Buller coal-field. , , *1111 
Lookino- from the hills south of Collmgwood on the right bank 
