57

C.—9

to the north. Breccias and shaly clays with coal are found in the two lower levels of the Triumph Mine, and dipping west form an unconformable junction between the rocks of the Thames-Tokatea and the Kapanga groups. Lacustrine deposits containing plant-remains are found on the northern end of the Tokatea Range ; similar deposits are found at places along the road from the Kapanga Mine to Cabbage Bay, and in the shaft of the Kathleen Mine at Coromandel. In the section taken from the eastern slopes of Moehau to the sea in Big Sandy Bay, Port Charles, the lowest beds are hard compact volcanic sandstones and breccias that, resting on slates showing in the valley at 140 ft. above the sea, are to the east followed by rocks of a softer character, in which occur the nests and veins of quartz in the Jay Gould Mine. The volcanic rocks to the north and south of the valley rise into hills of considerable altitude, that, as sub-ranges, flank Moehau on the east side. Towards the sea the section across these rocks is obscure, and it is not certain at what distance from the sea the Kapanga rocks are overlain by the coarse breccias of the Beeson's Island group, which are finely displayed on the shore-line on both sides of Big Sandy Bay. In the section from Cabbage Bay to Port Charles the height of land is reached before the slate ceases and the rocks of the Kapanga group are entered upon. In the lower beds coarse blocks of dark augitic andesite are often met with, and it is in the ridge between Waikawau Creek and the fall into Port Charles that the light-grey tufaceous sandstone regarded as " kindly country " is met with. These in the road-cuttings descending to Port Charles are well exposed, and in the rocks of this part quartz reefs are present, some of which carry a considerable percentage of silver. Samples of stone taken from a lode 3 ft. to 4 ft. thick have been analysed, both at the Thames School of Mines and at the Colonial Laboratory, Wellington, the yield in both cases being from 105 oz. to 110 oz. of silver, and from a trace to 17 dwt. of gold to the ton. The sections across the northern and southern part of the Cabbage Bay Range, across the Cuvier Light, Shotover, and other claims in the north part, or over the White Star block of country in the southern part, show the same general character and sequence of the rocks, which for the most part consist of light-grey moderately-fine-grained breccias, with subordinate bands of dark augitic andesite, that have a general dip to the eastward. In this part of the district there are numerous lodes of quartz that for the most part yield prospects of gold. The prospects from the small reefs would be sufficient were there a greater body of stone, while in the large reefs the prospect is barely enough to make the stone pay for working. Almost all the reefs yet found yield gold, more or less, and this general distribution of gold in the reefs of this and the northern part of the Tokatea Range gives hopes that the district will yet afford mines of a payable character. In Austral Hill, forming the northern part of the Tokatea Range, the rocks of the Kapanga group are well and characteristically displayed as grey sandstones and breccias of moderately fine grain. Between the slate lower part and the top of the hill they display a thickness of between 800 ft. and 1,000 ft., and toward the lower part show the presence of stratified rocks consisting of tufaceous sandstones and fine-grained tufa indurated or altered to a species of chert. In these beds coaly matter and plant-remains are plentiful, the latter in the fine-grained beds that underlie the sandstones. The material is such that plant-remains of whatever kind should be perfectly preserved in it, and such as are present are so, but it was in vain that these beds were searched for remains of dicotyledonous plants. The most abundant form indicated a jointed reed-like plant, and a few species of ferns were also collected. Subsequent to my examination Mr. Park visited the locality, and afterwards informed me that remains of dicotyledons were found by him, but he did not inform me what their affinities were, or the genera to which they belonged. Possibly Mr. Park was mistaken with respect to the character of the plant-remains collected by him, and further search will have to be made in these beds in order to verify the alleged fact. Along the line of section from Kikowhakarere Bay to the north side of Kennedy Bay contact of these rocks with those of the Thames-Tokatea group can be first conveniently studied in the different workings of the Triumph Mine. In these, as seen in the two lower adits driven into the range, the lowest beds of the Kapanga group are breccias and tufaceous clays with traces of coal. At a lower level on the range similar beds containing bands of iron-sulphide appear in the road-cuttings, but these probably belong to a higher horizon. Between the Triumph and the group of claims on the Austral Hill there appears to be a portion of the main ridge in which quartz lodes are comparatively rare, and this also may be said of the country in the same vicinity extending to the shore of the gulf between Kikowhakarere Bay and Paparoa. In the first baynorth of Kikowhakarere thin veins of quartz show in the south headland, and are there associated with a" kindly " class of country consisting of tufaceous sandstone, in which lines of stratification can be distinctly traced. This belt of country extends to the south-east in the direction of Kapanga Hill, and its presence is evidenced by a depression and the lower heights of the hills in that direction. Dykes and solid floes of andesite, much or but little decomposed, appear on the shore-line on the north side of Kikowhakarere Bay, and with these are bands of breccia of varying thickness, which increase in importance towards the south and south-east. On the south side of the bay the breccias predominate, and the size of the material of which they are composed increases as they are followed into and on to the higher part of Dacre's Hill. In the direction of the Kapanga Mine an isolated hill to the north-east of the road-line shows the presence of a thick floe of grey andesite, which, though present in the middle higher part of Dacre's Hill, has been denuded away from the area of the Kapanga Claim. Scotty's Hill, interposed between the Kapanga Claim and the west slopes of the Tokatea Range, shows the presence of two or more thick bands of dark augite andesite that evidently rapidly thin out towards the west. These are underlain in the Britannia Mine, and in the Kapanga Mine are underlain and overlain by grey and greenish moderately-fine-grained breccias that gradually tend to become coarser as they are followed to the westward. The same rocks are of a coarse description in the Blagrove Mine and in Dacre's Hill. Further to the westward the size of the breccias decrease until they again are normal, 3in. or 4in. through being the B—C. 9.