Hakdcastle. — On the Timaru Loesr.. 411 



. which fills tlie larger crevices in the dolerite to the top, very 

 thinly scattered through the mass generally, but in astonish- 

 ing numbers in the granule-bands. In each of at least three 

 of these bands sujierposed at one spot bird-stones exist in 

 such quantities that one may well speak of them as "so 

 many bushels to the acre." Certainly no farmer could afford 

 to sow grain so thickly. The buried peat-pool runs out into 

 the uppermost and most prolific of these. The majority of 

 stones found in the buried pool are of quartz or of other 

 mineral whose whiteness deceived the birds ; those found in 

 the granule-bands, while containing a not-inconsiderable pro- 

 portion of white stones, are of all colours, but for the most 

 part of hard materials. Water-fowl usually possess consider- 

 able powers of flight, and from frequentiiig watercourses they 

 have a better chance of obtaining quartz or other white or 

 whitish pebbles. This would account for the larger propor- 

 tion of such pebbles in the buried pool. Land-birds, whether 

 of powerful flight or not, have not the same opportunities for 

 selection ; hence the mixed character of the pebbles found in 

 the granule-bands — the old land-surfaces. The whole of 

 the pebbles can, I believe, be matched as to mineral character 

 from the drift-deposit overlain by the dolerite. 



Bird-stones are to be found in the present soil and subsoil, 

 but they are so rare that the search for them is disheartening 

 work. This refers to the dry-land surface. In the old peat- 

 pool at the engine-shed very small stones are somewhat 

 numerous, and beneath the mud in the bed of the Waimatai- 

 tai Lagoon, now being cut back by the sea, white stones, of 

 such size that they must have been used by some of the 

 moa tribe, are not uncommon. In two places — one near 

 the base of the deposit, the other in the lowest granule-band — 

 I obtained a few large, mostly well-rounded pebbles of brown 

 sandstone, such as could only have been used by gigantic 

 birds.''' 



Moa-bones. — Moa-bones have been obtained from the 

 formation. Some were dug out in making the excavation for 

 the passenger-station, but I cannot say from what position. 

 In the somewhat low sea-cliff of clay at Dashing Eocks moa- 

 bones are occasionally weathered out, about one-third of the 

 way down the face. These have no relation whatever to the 

 remains of a moa-hunters' encampment near that spot, these 

 remains being wholly contained in black soil. 



Excejytional Bedding. — The loess generally is quite devoid 

 of stratification in the ordinary sense, but there are small 

 portions here and there which show a perfect bedding. Sir 



* This section will suggest a solution of the " very puzzling geo- 

 logical problem " stated by Mr. J. C. Crawford in "Trans.," xvii., p. 341. 



