structure of the interior of the country, and especially of the Alpine districts, has been but imperfectly explored by Europeans, no conclusive inferences can be drawn from this negative evidence. Beds of limestone, composed of organisms similar in their generic types to those which prevail in certain cretaceous strata of Europe, appear in a few places along the eastern coast, from near Morakura to Kakaunui: but their relation to the adjacent plutonic and metamorphic rocks has not been ascertained. A pleistocene, or modern tertiary blue clay, abounding in shells of species existing in the neighbouring ocean, overlies the limestone at Onekakara; and is in many places covered by alluvial deposits of gravel, sand, conglomerate, and loam, which form the superficial soil of the vast plains that are spread over the eastern side of the central mountain-chain. On the western shore of the North Island, beds of clay with similar fossil shells occur beneath the ossiferous deposits, as we shall presently have occasion to notice. In many places there are alluvial plains of loam, clay, and gravel, overgrown by ancient forests; and extensive mud and sand-flats, formed by the existing streams and rivers, at their embouchures, and in their tortuous course from the mountain ranges whence they take their rise, till they reach the seashore.1 OSSIFEROUS DEPOSIT AT WAIKOUAITI. The fossil birds' bones in the Wall-case B, were collected by Percy Earle, Esq." and like those transmitted to England by Dr. Mackellar, and the late Col. Wakefield, are for the most part of a dark brown colour, strongly impregnated with tannin, and more or less permeated by phosphate and carbonate of iron; they resemble in their appearance and state of mineralisation, the bones of the Irish Elk, Mastodon, and Mammoth, &c. dug up from peat-bogs and morasses. They were obtained from a submerged swamp, visible only at low water, that is situated 1 See "Memoirs on the Geology, and Fossil Remains of Birds of New Zealand, from Notes and Observations by Walter Mantell, Esq." "Geological Journal," Vol. IV. Part I. and Vol. VI. p. 319. 2 This collection was purchased of Mr. Percy Earle by the Trustees of the British Museum, for 1301. Many of the specimens are figured and described in "Zoological Transactions," Vol. III. pp. 313-319. on the south-eastern shore of the Middle Island. The following account of this locality is extracted from Mr. Walter Mantell's notes: "Near Waikouaiti, seventeen miles north of Otago, there is a headland called Island Point, about three quarters of a Mantell, LIGN. 24. MOA-BED AT ISLAND POINT, WAIKOUAITI, EAST COAST OF THE MIDDLE ISLAND OF (Sketched on the spot by Walter Esq.) mile in length and 150 feet in height; it consists of sandy clay, distinctly stratified, and traversed by dykes of columnar trap, the columns being at right angles to the sides of the veins. In a little bight south of Island Point, on the side of the bar which unites that headland to the mainland at the entrance of the river Waikouati, in front of the native Kaika, named Makuku, is situated the exposed part of the so-called turbary deposit, whence bones of Moas and other birds of various kinds, have been obtained in such number and perfection. This bed is about three feet in depth and not more than a hundred yards in length, and lies immediately on a stratum of tertiary blue clay; its inland boundary is obscured by vegetation, and appears to be of very limited extent; the bed is entirely submerged, and only visible when the tide has receded. "It consists almost wholly of decayed vegetable matter, and its surface is studded with the undisturbed roots of small trees which appear to have been burnt to the ground at some remote period. It is a light, sandy, elastic earth, of a blackish brown colour, and emits a strong fetid odour when first collected, from the large quantity of animal matter it contains. I conceive it was originally a swamp or morass, in which the New Zealand flax (Phormium tenax,) once grew luxuriantly. It is now covered by a thin layer of sand when exposed at low water. "The above sketch of the coast, (Lign. 24,) will serve to illus trate the position of this remarkable ossiferous deposit of the colossal birds of New Zealand. The appearance and condition of the bones are similar to those of mammalia imbedded in peat-bogs. They have acquired a rich umber colour, and their texture is tough and firm; they contain a large proportion of animal matter, even the periosteum is in some instances preserved. 66 Although bones of several species of Moa, especially of the largest kinds, have been collected from this locality in considerable numbers and in great perfection, yet as the bed is rapidly diminishing from the inroads of the sea, there is great reason to fear that it will be entirely washed away, without yielding to the palaeontologist all the desired information respecting the extinct animals whose relics it enshrines; for the natives and whalers are well aware of the interest attached to the bones by Europeans, and they seize indiscriminately on any specimen exposed by the receding tide, and if it cannot be readily extracted they break it off, and thus many a valuable relic has been destroyed. cupidity and avarice have too been so much excited by the large rewards injudiciously given by casual visitors, that the cost of specimens has increased to an unreasonable amount." Their An earnest of the invaluable treasures that might be obtained by careful research, is afforded by the entire series of bones (26 in number) of a pair of feet and legs of the largest species of Moa (Dinornis robustus), that were found standing erect, the one about a yard in advance of the other, with the proximal ends of the two shank-bones just visible above the soil. These were carefully extracted bone by bone, and ticketed on the spot by my son, so that I was enabled to have them articulated as in a recent skeleton; and they now constitute an unique example of the bones of the feet found in natural connexion, and show the original form and structure of these organs in the extinct colossal birds of our Antipodes.1 From the position of these bones, there can be no doubt, as my son observes, that the unfortunate Moa was mired in the swamp, and unable to extricate itself, perished on the spot : 1 The frontispiece of the "Pictorial Atlas," is a beautiful lithograph of one of these feet by Mr. Dinkel, one-third nat. size. See pp. 10–12 of that work. in like manner as the groups of Irish Elks occasionally found in England, and the mammoths and mastodons in the bonelicks or ancient swamps of America. OSSIFEROUS DEPOSIT IN THE NORTH ISLAND. The bones collected by my son from the North Island (deposited in the Table-cases, 15, 16, 17,) present a very different appearance from those of Waikouaiti above described. Instead of being heavy and of a dark colour, and permeated by silt and iron, they are light and porous, and of a delicate fawn-colour; the most fragile processes are entire, and the articulating surfaces of the joints smooth and uninjured; even portions of eggshells, and mandibles, and the bony rings of the tracheæ or air-tubes, are preserved. In their general aspect these bones resemble those of the carnivora from the ossiferous caverns of Germany. Their state of preservation is evidently due to the material in which they were imbedded, which is a loose volcanic sand (termed menaccanite) containing titaniferous iron, crystals of hornblende and augite, &c, the detritus of volcanic rocks and earthy tuff. The sand has filled all the cavities and cancelli that have external openings, but is in no instance consolidated or aggregated together; it is easily removed by a soft brush. The following extract from my son's letter, dated Wellington, June, 1847, details the circumstances under which this most interesting collection was formed : "On the western shore of the North Island, about sixty miles south-west of New Plymouth, there is a stream called Waingongoro, which empties itself into the sea at about a mile and a half south of Waimate in the Ngátirúanúi district. Part of the neighbouring country is elevated tableland, with deep tortuous gullies, through which the torrents. and streams take their course to the sea. That of Waingongoro, which is as tortuous as any of them, takes its rise in the neighbouring volcanic ridge, and has evidently at a former period discharged itself far distant from its present embouchure, as is proved by the existence of a line of cliffs which extends inland, and has manifestly been produced by the corroding action of the river. Driven from its course, probably, by a change in the relative level of the land and sea, the stream has formed its present channel, which cuts through a bed of loose conglomerate, 100 feet thick, over lying a deposit of finely laminated sand, which covers a thick stratum of blue clay full of shells. The conglomerate consists of pebbles and large boulders of an infinite variety of volcanic rocks; the clay is the lowermost visible bed; the shells it contains are marine, and resemble species existing in the South Pacific Ocean; but I suspect many will be found specifically distinct from any recent forms. "Between the two bluffs near the embouchure of the river, there is a sand-flat, about 200 yards across, and this on my first visit was strewn with bones of men, moas and other birds, and two species of seals. I had some deep openings made near the foot of the ancient cliff, on the top of which is the Pa, or native village of Ohawetokotoko; and at the same level as the flat on which I had observed the strewn fragments of bones, I came to a regular ossiferous deposit. The bones, however, though perfect, were as soft and plastic as putty, so that if grasped strongly they changed as it were by magic into pipe-clay, and it was necessary to dig them up with great care, and expose them to the air and sun to dry, before they could be packed up and removed. "Unfortunately the natives soon caught sight of my operations, and came down in swarms,-men, women, and children, -trampling on the bones I had carefully extracted and laid out to dry, and seizing upon every morsel exposed by the spade. My patience was tried to the utmost, and to avoid blows, I was obliged to retreat and leave them in the possession of the field; and to work they went in right earnest, and quickly made sad havoc. No sooner was a bone perceived than a dozen natives pounced upon it, and began scratching away the sand, and smashed the specimen at once. It was with great trouble, and by watching the opportunity of working in the absence of the Maoris, that I procured anything worth having. "The natives told me, and their assertion was borne out by the appearance of the place, that within their memory the entire area had been covered by drift-sand; in fact the bones seemed always to be imbedded on or beneath an old surface level. Columns of vertebræ, when the sand was carefully removed, were lying in situ and perfect, with, in rare instances, the skull and pelvis; but to preserve these precious |