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divide between the Bast Coast and the valley of the Waihou River. This range continues in a direct line to the south boundary of the district examined. Prom Cabbage Bay to Coromandel the principal range is flanked by different groups of hills divided from each other by the valleys of the different creeks draining towards the Hauraki Gulf. Between Kevin's Point and the foot of the Tokatea Hill, the last of the series, a group of four or five, constitutes an irregular spur range running north-east and south-west. To the south of Coromandel Harbour, like clusters of hills, often rising into mountains, flank the main range, and form a bold coast-line as far south as Tapu Creek, beyond which, to the Thames, the descending spurs of the main range reach the shore-line. Cut through by the Kerikeri, between the Kauaeranga and the Puriri, a block of mountains flanks the main range, and between Omaha and Hikutaia a spur range runs west to the main road from the Thames to the southern goldfields. Also between Paeroa and Te Aroha a range of hills strikes westward into the plain, and is divided from the principal range, by the saddle by which the coach-road crosses from Paeroa to the southern side. On the east side of the Peninsula a spur range runs from Castle Bock Eange to Kuaotunu, and south of Mercury Bay there commences a coastward series of mountains and ranges, that more or less divided from the different parts of the main range or water-divide, and broken through by various rivers and tidal inlets, reaches to and terminates at the upper or Katikati portion of Tauranga Harbour. The sketch on the opposite page shows the position and trend of the principal water-divides and different sections of the main range. North of Cabbage Bay the bulk of the country is formed of slate and sandstone of Carboniferous age, but on the east slopes of Moehau, and between the foot of the main peak and the sea, there is a considerable development of volcanic rock. Slate rocks, however, appear in the valleys on this side of the mountain down to 140 ft. above sea-level. Abreast of Cabbage Bay the slates are confined to the western slope of the range, but more to the south they appear on both the east and west flanks of the range, the volcanic rocks merely capping them and forming the higher parb of the range. Slates appear as a small outcrop at the head of Cabbage Bay, on its south side, and on the coast-line from Torihine to Paparoa, but are not again seen on the shore-line till reaching the south side of Coromandel Harbour. The presence of slate under the volcanic rocks of the Tokatea Eange has been proved in various mine-workings, which show that the slates rise to a height of 1,020 ft. above sea-level. On the western middle slope of the Success Range the slates are exposed at the surface, and on this side of the main water-divide they continue to the southward to abreast of the middle part of the Castle Rock Range, where in connection with the main range for a time they terminate. A little to the north of this termination slates appear further to the west, on the shore of Coromandel Harbour, and this area of slate for a time, flanked to the west by volcanic rocks, in its south extension, reaches the shore of the gulf at Kirita Inlet, south of Manaia Harbour. There is between the shore of the gulf at this point and the eastern limit of the slate a breadth of four miles, which, next to the Moehau area, is the greatest width of slates on the Peninsula. Gradually the width of the slate belt lessens in a south direction to its termination in the gorge of Tapu Creek. Further south, at Waiohanga or Rocky Point, near the Thames, there is a small exposure of slate beyond which no slate is known in the southern part of the Peninsula. Slates appear isolated and away from the main range in the Kuaotunu Peninsula. These rocks are thus mainly confined to the western slope of the main range north of the Thames, and to both slopes of Moehau in the northern part of the Peninsula. Near Cabbage Bay there is a development of the coal-bearing series of Cretaceous or old Tertiary date, but this, though once a widespread formation, has for the most part been denuded away, and is now of but little consequence as affecting the physical features of the district, being to a large extent covered up by younger volcanic rocks. Volcanic rocks of different ages overlie the slates, and each division, with the exception of the youngest, the acidic rocks or rhyolite formation, are at one or other place found resting on the slate formation. The general arrangement, however, is as a succession of strata and groups of volcanic rocks that strike in a north-east direction, and dip to the south-east, and this is true of the whole of the Peninsula, though local deviations from the rule are not infrequent. After all the important formations of the Peninsula had been deposited, movements still were continued, the commencement of which was of the date of the Kapanga group, whereby the rocks to the west and north were elevated and those to the south and east were depressed. And thus as time went on and denudation proceeded, the slates —the oldest rocks—appeared along the west coast, and in the northern part, and in accordance with and as a result of the same causes the rhyolite formation has its greatest development in the south and east, and is altogether absent from the northern part of the Peninsula. The slates and the older volcanic rock thus form the main range in the north part of the Peninsula, and it is along the western slope of this range that the principal reefing localities at and north of the Hauraki Goldfield are situated. At the Thames and at Coromandel, as a rule, the gold-bearing reefs occur in the volcanic rocks, but also at no great distance from an outcrop of slate, or from where the presence of slate has been ascertained in mine-workings. This western range terminates at the Kauaeranga, near its mouth; but eleven miles to the north the waterdivide between the east and west coasts, at the source of the Puru Creek, turns sharply to the west, and runs between the Kauaeranga and the upper part of the Waiwawa to Table Mountain, and west of Table Mountain to the divide between the Upper Kauaeranga and the waters flowing into Mercury Bay on the one hand, and into the Tairua River on the other. In Table Mountain and the range immediately to the north begins the second group of mountains, that, standing more to the east, forms the main water-divide south to where the range terminates on the north side of the Hikutaia Valley. This is composed of a variety of rocks