With reference to the first statement, it is not easy to believe that either the Hon. W. Mantell or Mr. C. Traill mixed together fossil and recent shells. Mr. Traill's collection is still in existence, partly in the Wellington Museum and partly in that at Dunedin; and, as most of the fossils are still in their original matrix, it is easy to disprove Mr. McKay's statement in this case. Mr. Mantell's collection is not in the Colony, but his list does not contain any of the commoner shells found on the coast. South of Hampden there is a raised beach with recent shells (Section VI.,f), formed into a quartzose sandstone, which, at first sight, might be supposed to pass below the clay. The commonest fossils in it are Barnea similis, Mactra discors, Paphia spissa, Venus mesodesma, Venerupis reflexa, and Ostrea edulis; but as none of these genera, except the last, occur in Mr. Mantell's list, he could not have made any part of his collection here. The idea that a palæontologist, having before him a collection of cretaceous and recent shells, should, as it were, strike a mean and consider the whole to be miocene—although, of course, not a single characteristic miocene shell would be among them—needs no refutation. To test the accuracy of these statements, I collected myself for an hour or two, in the blue clay north of Hampden, at the place marked “Fossils” in Section VI., with the following result:— 1. Ancillaria australis *2. Voluta corrugata. *3. Pleurotoma fusiformis. 4. Turritella ambulacrum. *5. Turritella ornata. 6. Trochus (?impression only). 7. Dentalium mantelli. 8. Venus stutchburyi. *9. Solenella funiculata. *10. Limopsis insolita. 11. Cucullœa, sp. (fragments). 12. Pecten hutchinsoni (right valve). 13. Pecten hochstetteri (? fragment). 14. Ostrea edulis. *15. Trochocyathus mantelli. 16. Notocyathus pedicellatus. Of these 16 species, the three in Roman are still living, and the six marked with an asterisk are characteristic Pareora (i.e. miocene) species. This is, I think, quite sufficient to show that Mr. McKay is in error, but I will give a list of all the fossils reported from this locality:— 1. Aturia ziczac, Sowb. 2. Fusus australis, Quoy. and Gaim. 3. Siphonalia nodosa, Martyn. 4. Siphonalia nodosa, var. conoidea, Hutton. 5. Cominella, sp. ind. 6. Nassa tatei, Tenison-Woods. 7. Ancillaria australis, Sowb. 8. Voluta pacifica, Solander. 9. Voluta corrugata, Hutton.