Art. XLIII.—Additions to the List of Fossils from the Lower Waipara.

Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 46, 1913, Page 300

Art. XLIII.—Additions to the List of Fossils from the Lower Waipara. By R. Speight M.SC., F.G.S. [Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 5th November, 1913.] The following list of fossils is based on collections made by the author last January on the banks of the Waipara River, about a quarter of a mile below Greenwood's Bridge, and opposite to the point where Double Corner Station was once situated. The beds consist of sands and sandy clays, with occasional hard concretionary bands which strike north-west and dip. south-west at angles in the vicinity of 15°. They represent one of the higher horizons exposed in the gorge, and pass up conformably into the beds exposed near the mouth of the Waipara River, which here consist of clays with occasional layers of coarse shingle, and seams of lignite which have a marked resemblance to the beds exposed on the south-eastern flanks of Mount Grey and form the Mount Grey Downs. No fossils have been found in these beds, but the lithological resemblance is so close that they may be assumed, at any rate tentatively, to be of the same age. The greater number of the fossils enumerated in my former paper on this locality were from a lower horizon, which is well exposed on the high banks somewhat higher up the river, about a mile above the bridge. My reason for publishing this list is merely to help as far as possible in the elucidation of our Tertiary sequence, for, as matters now stand, the collection of fossils in particular localities, with due regard to zoning, is the most pressing work to be done, and therefore I have ventured to submit this list, although it is a comparatively short one. I am indebted to Mr. Henry Suter for his kindness in aiding materially in the identification of the forms. —Chione meridionalis Sowerby. Tellina deltoidalis Lamarck, † This species has been noted previously only from the Pleistocene. —-stutchburyi Gray. Ancilla australis Sowerby. Cytherea oblonga Hanley. — depressa Sowerby. — enysi Hutton. — pseudaustralis Tate. Mesodesma grande Hutton. Cerithidea bicarinata Gray. Mytibts edulis Linné. Fulguraria arabica Martyn. Ostrea angasi Sowerby. Polinices ovatus Hutton. Pecten triphooki Hutton. Seila terebelloides Martens.Dagger; This species has been known previously only from the Pliocene. — hillii Hutton. Siphonalia sp. — crawfurdi Hutton. Turritella symmetrica Hutton.