Mr. Triphook’s list of rocks in the Province of Hawke, in a descending series:—

1. Fossiliferous limestone, marine fossils, 500 to 800 feet thick.
2. Crystalline sandstone gravel, waterworn, unfossiliferous, 300 to 600 feet thick.
3. Seam of lignite (9 inches thick).
4. Argillaceous indurated shale, fossiliferous.
5. Hard, green, gritty sandstone, unfossiliferous

Tertiary.

Metamorphic, or altered rock, probably Silurian.

With the exception of the nine inch seam of lignite (which I have heard rumours of in the Wairarapa, but have not seen), all the above named rocks extend to this part of the Island.

The additions I propose to make to Mr. Triphook’s series are:—

1. Recent formations. Deposits of Travertin, formed and still forming, at various points on the East side of the Wairarapa, from streams charged with Carbonate of Lime. This deposition may be particularly remarked at Mr. McMasters’ Station, Te Pura Pura, where I found some beautiful specimens of encrusted ferns—I also observed the same formation at Hautotara.

2. A raised beach extending round the Coast.

3. I next propose to divide the Tertiary gravel into two strata, to facilitate their description. An upper stratum of coarse gravel and an under stratum of fine light red gravel. The latter may be seen capping the argillaceous shale between Wangamoana and Te Kopi, and both gravels are found above the shale on a river terrace at Hautotara. Where the coarse gravel forms the surface of the ground, which it does in some parts to a great extent, the soil is naturally poor.

4. The next addition is a series of stratified rocks, composed of flagstones, limestones, &c., which I first found resting, highly inclined, on the flanks of the metamorphic rocks, between Mr. Barton’s Station and Teawaite (Mr. Riddiford’s). These rocks are of totally different mineralogical character from the Tertiaries already mentioned; but as I was unable to detect any fossils in them, during a cursory search interrupted by rain, a further investigation will be necessary to form an opinion as to their geological age. To the North of Teawaite I observed these rocks dipping from an anticlinal axis both inland and seaward, and on one range alone I counted five different strata, each of great thickness, inclined and showing a bold serrated edge against the sky as the point of each stratum projected. These rocks ought to be carefully examined to ascertain their age and character, and as I found indications of coal, viz., a very thin seam of that mineral, in a conglomerate rock of the series, it is just possible that we may here find the representatives of the carboniferous rocks lately discovered by Mr. Haast, in the Province of Canterbury. There is every reason to suspect that this series will prove to be either Secondary or Paleozoic. On a line parallel to the East Coast, and perhaps at a distance of ten miles from it, a number of precipitous and jagged summits are found. These hills are called Taipos by the Natives and are, I am told, held in superstitious dread, as the supposed dwelling places of evil spirits. They seem to be composed of stratified and tilted sandstones, although we may find that they are broken into by Trachytic rocks.

The last addition which I would make at present to the list of rocks is of great geological interest: It is a true igneous rock, a Trachyte, which I found on Mr. Beetham’s run, not “in situ,” but in fragments in the bed of the Upoko Ngaruru; from the debris composition of this rock, iron sand is deposited and in it Mr. Haast has discovered a speck of gold with the microscope. I would here mention that a fossil cetacean is to be seen in the bed of Upoko Ngaruru, washed out of the Argillaceous shale, and that as the floods are rapidly destroying all traces of it, it would be worth the attention of the Provincial Government to secure, for the Museum, as much of the skeleton as new remains.