First period.—Recent.—Surface or subsoil deposit. As remarked above, this is a widely-spread deposit, covering the surface of the country over a large area. It can be traced continuously from Napier to Tarawera, and from Gisborne to Tarawera. At Napier and Gisborne it is a subsoil pumice, whilst at Tarawera it is a surface pumice. At Napier this pumice is seen to overlie pumiceous clays, and these in turn overlie pumice, scoriæ, and in places grit beds. These latter beds do not appear to belong to the higher pumice beds, which can be traced back as belonging to the surface pumice deposits met with at Tarawera, and thence onward to the Taupo Plain. I do not see how to account for the existence of this loose, coarse, sandy pumice, except on the supposition that at some period towards the close of the Post-tertiary deposits vast showers of pumice took place, which were succeeded by showers of volcanic dust not unlike those which took place at Tarawera in July last year. The small rounded pumice grits, which become larger and coarser as we proceed in the direction of the volcanic zone, show, by their shape, that they must have been subject to a large amount of attrition; and their peculiar position in the hill-sides goes to show that water had nothing whatever to do in their deposition. The entire district between Napier and Poverty Bay is more or less covered with this characteristic deposit, which is overlaid by a very thin coating of dark black soil. Second period.—Pliocene.—A pumice deposit, associated with shingle, conglomerates, sands, blue clays, and lignite. This is a very remarkable deposit, and characterises the period as one of vast movements brought about mainly by the action of fresh water. The beds forming the southern shore of Hawke's Bay, and extending from what is locally known as the Black Reef, 2 miles or so within Cape Kidnappers, to Havelock, and thence onward to Pakipaki, are the typical representation of the pumice deposits of this period. The beds composing this very interesting section must be, at the very least, from 1,500 to 2,000 feet in thickness, for they extend in a most regular manner for several miles as high cliffs, dipping to the W.N.W. at an angle of about six degrees. The pumice alternates in these beds with shingle, clays, blue and straw-coloured sands, conglomerate and lignite, and, including the different beds, the pumice must amount to several hundred feet in thickness. The pumice varies in character in the different beds, from pebbles two or more inches in diameter, to a very fine deposit somewhat resembling chalk, and of a beautiful whiteness. In some of the pumice beds fine specimens of fossil leaves are met with, and these are as perfect in structure as if just gathered from a tree, their black shiny carbonized surfaces being the only distinction between them and freshly-gathered leaves. Every vein and veinlet are seen, but their beauty soon fades when their surfaces are exposed to