On the beach here is some iron sand, whence derived it is difficult to say, unless it comes from the intrusive greenstone.

On the 24th January, Mr. Thomas Guthrie kindly accompanied me to point out some coal seams on the shore. Near the Nakaua river we found soft sandstones containing plant impressions and some coal seams about two inches thick. They were not continuous, but thinned out in a yard or two. The rocks are the same as those at Castle Point and dip slightly to the Westward.

Ascending from the beach, in about a mile, I again came upon the calcareous grits and the intrusive greenstone, both of which prevail in crossing the Trooper, the ridge separating the Whareama from the sea. 896 feet I make the height of this ridge.

From this range the Pukotoe is visible, its tertiary character evident from this distance.

Descending from the Trooper, I crossed the alluvium of the Wharehama Valley, and ascended the hill next to Buxton’s Taipo, composed of calcareous grit. The Taipo has a singular family resemblance to that at Tinui and also dips to the Westward. I thence descended to Telford’s station, Awatoe toe, 136 feet above the sea.

Leaving Mr. Telford’s on January 25th, I continued on the calcareous grits for about a mile, when the upper tertiary sandstone rocks again appeared, and I found turritella, venus, &c. The upper sandstone now continues all the way to Collins’ bush, resting on the blue clay, or possibly in places on gravel.

The road crosses a ridge and descends upon Biscuit Creek, crosses another ridge and descends upon the Kaumengi, crosses a third ridge and descends upon the Taueru, crosses a fourth ridge and descends upon Te Ore Ore: the average height of the river flats being about 400 feet and of the ridges, where the road crosses, about 900 feet above the sea.

Reaching the Ruamahunga the upper sandstone has been left behind, and the drift gravel appears.

Stopping at Masterton for the night, I was informed that the plant beds of the East coast extends for a considerable distance up the Oahanga river.

In this journey I have settled the character of a large block of country, viz,—the whole of the island within this Province lying to the N. E. of the Wairarapa, and between the Tararua and the East coast. It will of course be desirable to complete a traverse which I propose to make with you, from the gorge of the Manawatu to the Akitio river and the East coast, but as I have been through the gorge of the Manawatu, and as I have also been on the Rua Taniwha plains and at Porongahau, I may very safely venture to predict that in the above named traverse, we shall find nothing but the above described tertiary and other rocks.

In none of these tertiary rocks can metallic ores be expected, (although the intrusive igneous rock may contain a little gold), nor do I expect any in the limestones and calcareous grits, for the following reasons.

1st. Because I see no indications of mineral lodes among them.

2nd. Because, although I have been unable to detect fossils among them and therefore cannot as yet assign to them their geological age; if not older tertiaries, from their lithological character they can hardly be older than of Mezozoic age, and therefore, supposing them to be of that age, although coal may be looked for, one cannot expect to find any of the metallic ores among them, save possibly ores of iron, of which however there is no appearance.

The date of dislocation and upheaval of these rocks would also, I imagine, militate against the argument of their containing metallic ores (there being no appearance of any previous disruption of these rocks which might have charged them with minerals). The intrusive plutonic rock must have penetrated them after the deposition of the upper sandstone, therefore probably in the Pliocene, or Post Pliocene era.

You will perceive that we have now established three nearly parallel lines of plutonic or volcanic action in this Province.

In the centre, the ancient rocks of the Rimutaka, Tararua, and Ruahine, with their spurs, folded and pressed together, and having a general direction of about N.N.E. true.

In the East, the calcareous and tertiary rocks, tilted on a line of about N.N.E. (magnetic) from the ancient rocks of Cape Palliser towards the Province of Hawke’s Bay. In the West we have part of the volcanic chain of Ruapehu and Tongariro, ending abruptly, however, at the southern slope of Ruapehu, and perhaps I might include a fourth line in that neighbourhood, in the Kaimanawa range, but it is hardly in the Province.

From the central chain on both sides tertiary rocks extend East and West. I have therefore narrowed the area in which