On the Geology of New Zealand; with Notes on its Carboniferous Deposits

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Abstract
Coast-line of South and Middle Islands .—In a country in most places so difficult of access, and so thickly wooded, as New Zealand, little more can be done than simply to specify the names, and as nearly as possible the relative positions, of the various rocks which present themselves along the sea-coast ; for, with the exception of an occasional landslip, there are no other means of arriving at a knowledge of the geological formation of the country. The water-courses are either precipitous torrents, or gentle streams flowing through alluvial deposits ; in no ease showing a regular and well-defined series of sedimentary rocks. The nearest approach to such a section was found at the foot of Mount Grey in Port Cooper Plains; it will be alluded to hereafter. The rocks which appear to be the fundamental rocks of the Middle Island, are—granite, gneiss, mica-slate, elayslate, and other metamorphic schists, with rocks of igneous origin, including basalt, amygdaloid, porphyritic lavas, volcanic tufts, obsidian, serpentine, and greenstone (jade). Associated with these on the sea-coast are carboniferous deposits, made up of limestones (generally fossiliferous), sandstones, grits, shales, and seams of lignitie and imperfectly formed coal, covered in most places by a remarkable deposit of gravel, composed of water-worn pebbles, which are chiefly, and in some places entirely, of white quartz. This deposit in many places is several hundred feet in thickness. It is found in Massacre and Blind Bays, at the Wairoa Plain, and again covering the plains from Port Cooper district to

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