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tainly bear some resemblance to the grit so largely
deposited on Mount Rochfort, and other parts of the
Grey Coal-field, but whether they belong to the same
series I cannot tell; certainly they appear different
to the tertiary rocks found below. About 500 feet
further up shale is found (as stated by Mr. Rochfort),
but as the part exposed is very limited in extent, I
cannot say much about it; possibly Mr. Rochfort is
correct in supposing that it belongs to the true coal
formation, but I cannot express a definite opinion on
this subject. The shale dips to the north about 30
degrees. Further up the spur there is little more to
indicate the presence of the coal formation, the rocks
being principally slates and schists very much on
edge.

On arriving at the top of the spur, which is quite
open, being above the snow line, I found the
rocks, as before mentioned, to consist of slates and
schists, with a general strike about north-east,
dipping to south-east from 50 to 70 degrees.
In these rocks there are peculiar fossil shells, some
of which were sent to Nelson by Mr. Rochfort; al-
though I sought for them as long as daylight
would allow me, I only found a few imperfect
specimens.

The whole of this neighbourhood is extremely
broken, and so far as I have seen there is little indi-
cation of any regular and continuous strata; neither
do I think the nature of the district at all encourages
the hope that such will be found.

Having said this much of the Baton and Lower
Wangapeka district, I will now give some account
of the higher part of the latter river. For about 20
miles up the Wangapeka there is little, I could
find no indication of coal; a variety of rocks are
seen, but they are generally very much broken, and
more or less on edge; seldom or never at a less in-
clination than 45 degrees, and often almost perpendi-
cular.

Beyond this point, however, there is a marked
change; shale and other rocks belonging to the coal
measures are found; indeed drift coal, and I think
true coal, has been picked up in the bed of the river
by Mr. Rochfort; though I was not fortunate enough
to find any myself. Here there is a very large de-
posit of hard shale, literally full of impressions of
leaves and ferns, in a beautiful state of perfection.
Mr. Rochfort has sent a number of these to Nelson,
and on our return down the river we both collected as
many as we could carry in addition to our loads, and
brought them to Rolling River, to be sent to Nelson
by the return drays. There are several beds of very
bituminous shale in the immediate neighbourhood,
but I could find no coal. To show how very irre-
gular the strata here is, I may state that the dip of
the beds containing these fossil leaves is to west
about 65 degrees; and 100 yards further down the
river, it is to north-east 45 degrees; and a mile and a
half further down still, it is was so near perpendicular
that I could scarcely determine the direction of the
dip. A little further up the river I found a good
deal of tertiary rock, but for the next seven or eight
miles to the saddle between the Wangapeka and the
Karamea, no indication of coal, neither did I see any
till near Coal Saddle, about four miles further.
Here I have no hesitation in saying that there is a
formation of true coal; the same or very similar to
that found in such perfection near the mouths of the
rivers Grey, Buller, and Mokihinui; there are similar
grits, sandstones, and shales, and what is more, a
seam of good coal, the first I had seen since I
left Nelson.

The following is a section of the strata so far as I
could measure it, viz.:—

Dip to S.W. or S.S.W. 45 deg.

The coal burns and cakes freely, gives a very good
heat, and is free from shale or other foreign matter.
Several pieces have been sent to Nelson, and I have
some which will be sent by the return drays. The
ontcrop of the seam is in a small stream, within 100
yards of the top of the saddle. I have no idea what
may be the extent or thickness of the coal field, but
about half a mile to the east it is cut off by the un-
derlying formation of slaty rocks, and half a mile to
the west there is a large deposit of tertiary rocks,
probably overlying it. On both sides of the saddle
coal is found in a great number of places, indeed, as
the path just ent gets a little worn down, you are
constantly finding loose coal upon it. In one gully,
about 1,000 feet below the saddle, on the south-west
side, shale, with the impression of leaves, &c., exactly
similar to that found in the Upper Wangapeka, is
met with; and in the same gully, and within a very
short distance, both coal and granite are found. The
coal can be traced some distance, a little below the
surface, quite loose with nothing solid enough to
enable me to judge of its position. In the very next
gully there is not the slightest indication of coal, and
in several places on the same hill side, there is a
great quantity of tertiary marl, in places very rich in
fossil shells, a number of which I collected, and they
will be sent with the other specimens. Coal saddle
is about thirty miles from the Wangapeka plain, and
is 3,200 feet above the level of the sea.

The extraordinary way in which the different
formations seem huddled together, and the great dis-
turbance which has evidently taken place here, as
elsewhere; together with the circumstances that the
whole country is so much broken up into gullies, and
the sides of these gullies, covered with debris from
the mountains, and this again with dense vegetation,
has I confess defied all my efforts to reduce it to any
sort of order.

This apparent confusion of the strata, may to a
certain extent be accounted for by the circumstance
that everything is so much on edge, so that a very
thick formation, may all crop out in a short distance
on the surface, though had it been moderately level,
it might have been extended over hundreds of square
miles. Of course this rapid rising to the surface in a
coal formation, will expose a great number of seams in
a short distance. This is certainly the case on or
near the saddle, though doubtless many of these seams
are covered up by debris, composed of coal and other
rocks connected with it. This, on being cut through
by small streams, exposes loose coal in large quanti-
ties, though in no regular seams; indeed the quantity
of broken coal found on and under the surface is
very confusing to the explorer.

All that I can feel sure of, is that on this saddle
and in the immediate neighborhood, there are seams
of good coal, but very much broken and confused,
though there is more appearance of regularity here
than in most parts of the district; still I am not at
all sanguine that regular and continuous seams, even
with the heavy dip of 45 degrees will be found
here.