ranges south of the coal basin, it is evident, that during this great disturbance of the earth's crust, they were not only thrown up, but even folded over and pressed towards the north west, so that, in consequence, the edges of the coal basin were upheaved to their present position, although as far as I could judge from the strike and dip of the strata in the basin itself, and from analogous facts ascertained in other parts of the world, the centre of the basin remained probably undisturbed.

These extensive thick deposits of palæozoic age are, in their lithological character, identical with the Ashburton and Rangitata rocks, on which reposes, also unconformably, rocks of the carboniferousperiod, as shown by the fossils contained in them. We may therefore presume that this coal basin is here the representative of the same age.

The coal seam of the Kowaihas, at the spot where carboniferous rocks crop out above the drift, a breadth of nearly 6,000 feet, enlarging more towards the east. I also traced rocks belonging to this carboniferous formation as far as the Thirteen Mile Bush Range, at a distance of four miles and a half, and also in a westerly direction, towards Mr. M’Farlane’s Station, to an equal distance from the drive, which was executed under my direction on behalf of the Provincial Government of Canterbury.

The enormous extent of the great drift formation, which had here been deposited, conceals almost entirely the existence of the carboniferous strata, and we owe it only to the occurrence of a slip at the side of the range, dividing the waters of the Kowai from those of the Hawkins, that they have become visible, the before-mentioned rocks, occurring at other spots, belonging only to the lowest series of the coal formation.

Thirty feet above the river some blackish and slaty shales were exposed, dipping at an angle of 70 degrees towards north-north-west. By causing the drift, which had slipped at this point, to be removed, two seams of coal were exposed, and the drive, of which a detailed section is annexed, was begun.

The drift formation, which covers the whole eastern side of the Province of Canterbury, consisting of deposits derived from the waste of the Southern Alps during the glacial period overlying, in some instances before stated, coal-bearing strata, which at their outcrop are nearly on their edges. Below these deposits we meet with beds of a similar nature, but evidently of a greater age and of a more local character. Small pieces of coal and shale are imbedded with boulders, in a tenacious loamy cement, partly ferruginous, filling up all the interstices between carboniferous rocks. At places, some carboniferous beds, being more liable to be destroyed, have been washed out as their outcroppings and their place taken by loose conglomerates, white sand, and small seams of lignite, the impression of charæspteristic plants proving them to be of marine origin. The existence of these beds, of a young tertiary age, and to all appearance interstratified between the rocks of the carboniferous period, was very perplexing until I succeeded in tracing their origin.

As we meet a large basin of the same age at much higher altitudes, near the sources of the River Kowai and, in every direction in this part of the province, we may assume that in the basin of the Kowai also the coal measures will be overlaid by deposits of that age which stand in close connection with the volcanic action at the western sides of the Canterbury plains, they being deposited shortly before its principal occurrence.

We therefore ought not to be surprised, if in boring for coal at a more convenient spot, we should meet above these deposits belonging to these tertiary series. The coal formation has, and probably to a great extent, been denuded in its upper members. I found only at one spot, about 120 yards in a north-west direction from the drive, and on the northern banks of the Kowai, outcropping from the drift, a cliff of a greyish thick bedded sandstone with some thin shaly beds interstratified, the strike and dip of which corresponded with the strike and dip of the shales exposed on the southern banks of the Kowai, so that we can with safety assume, that we have so much more to add to the thickness of the coal measures and principally to those of their strata which are of a more combustible character.

Entering the drive, the first stratum belonging to the coal measures, which, in a descending series, has not been denuded, is a bed of drift coal of a remaining thickness of 2 feet 3 inches.

I call this seam and some succeeding ones drift-coal, because they consist for the most part of trees, lying confusedly above each other without any order, seeming to be drifted together. Some of these trees are of large diameter, their bark is smooth and has for several inches been changed into hard shiny coal, whilst their interior, not being of the same hard structure, and rotting sooner, has been filled up with clays coloured by carbon and in layers, so as to show how their interior has gradually been filled up.

Amongst these trees, and often lying overgrown bark as well as between the black stratified shales, we find the only-fossils which hitherto have been observed by me, all of the same species, although in great abundance. These impressions of the carboniferous flora, from two lines to four inches broad, belong to a plant allied to the equisetaceæ.

Below this seam of drift-coal:

Lignite animal band of black slaty shale ... 0 3
After which we meet the first seam of laminated coal of a thickness of ... 0 7
After which the following seams with these intervening beds of shales are underlying:

ft. in.
Black slaty shale ... ... ... 0 2
Drift-coal ... ... ... ... ... 1 8
Laminated coal ... ... ... ... 0 1
Black slaty shale ... ... ... ... 0 3
Drift-coal ... ... ... ... ... 2 11
Laminated coal ... ... ... ... 1 4
Blackish slaty shale ... ... ... 3 10
Shaly coal ... ... ... ... 0 3
Black slaty shale ... ... ... 0 10
Coal ... ... ... ... ... 0 8
Blackish slaty shale ... ... ... 0 9
Coal ... ... ... ... ... 1 0
Brown earthy shale ... ... ... 1 6
Laminated coal ... ... ... ... 2 4