316 Transactions. — Geology. 



together in great confusion. The men who assisted me were 

 very careful in extricating the specimens, and very few were 

 injured considering the difficulty of working under water, and 

 in the stiff and extremely tenacious clay. 



After two days' work at this place, and an examination 

 of two places higher up the drain where a few bones had been 

 found, we ceased operations. 



Mr. Williams kindly had the spoils conveyed to the station, 

 and the railway authorities kindly conveyed the bones to 

 Napier free of charge. 



The bones which I have referred to as having been got on 

 the first cutting of the drain were also presented by the 

 Archdeacon to the Museum, and sent down to Napier. 



The cleaning, sorting, measuring, comparison, classing, and 

 identification of more than a thousand bones and fragments 

 has necessarily taken me some time, and I regret that I shall 

 have to leave what will perhaps be the more interesting part 

 of my paper till another occasion, on which I hope to enume- 

 rate the kinds and relative bulk of the species met with, and to 

 draw your attention to the more striking features in the 

 anatomy of the gigantic moas. 



It may possibly be asked how can such an accumulation of 

 bones in the one place be accounted for. This I hope to give 

 a reasonable theory for in the next paper. At present the 

 facts lead me to the conclusion that the most tenable hypo- 

 thesis is that the spot was a narrow crossing-place in a swampy 

 forest, and that the springs caused the ground to be so soft 

 and swampy that moas were often bogged and unable to 

 extricate themselves. The reasons in support of this I shall 

 advance for your consideration. 



P.S. — Within the last few days I hear that another find of 

 moa-bones has been made in the same swamp. If such is the 

 case I trust that the new discoveries will enable us to complete 

 our series of the North Island forms of Dinornis. 



In the notes which I had the honour to read to you at the 

 July meeting, I gave some account of the deposit of moa- 

 bones examined by me at Te Ante, and promised to continue 

 the paper. 



Just before our last meeting I paid another visit to the 

 lake, and found that another discovery had been made in a spot 

 nearly two miles from the original find. 



It seems that when the drainage operations reached the 

 actual shore of the lake itself the drain was continued in a 

 straight line nearly half a mile into the lake, passing through 

 the centre of an irregular winding lagoon forming the exit of 

 the lake. The result of this was an immediate lowering of 



