318 Transactions. — Geology. 



1. That the bones were a second time found collected at 

 the end of a spur running into the swamp. 



2. That there is again an unaccountable absence of skulls 

 and neckbones. 



Aet. XXXV. — Discovery of Fossil Moa-feathers in Bocks of 



Pliocene Age. 



By H. Hill. 



[Bead before the Hawke's Bay Philosophical InstitJite, 12th Nov., 1888.] 



I BEG to bring under the notice of the Society a very in- 

 teresting discovery made by me a few days ago. I refer to the 

 finding of excellent specimens of fossil feathers in rocks which 

 I think are pliocene, and, indeed, are so classed by. the Geologi- 

 cal Survey Department. 



The place where the fossils were found is situated at 

 Ormond, about ten miles north-west from Gisborne, in the 

 Poverty Bay district. A range of hills bounds the northern 

 part of the Poverty Bay plain. This range extends from the 

 coast in a north-west direction, passing behind the Ormond 

 township, and continuing to a point five miles or so further to 

 the north-west, where it is cut through by the Waipaoa Eiver, 

 which empties itself in the bay. The hills behind Ormond, 

 where the fossils were found, must be about 350ft. above 

 sea-level. They are composed of blue clays, coarse sandy 

 fossiliferous limestones, and pumice mud and sands, tlie latter 

 being the highest beds. All the beds appear to rest conform- 

 ably on one another, and they agree in stratigraphical arrange- 

 ment with the beds exposed in a high blufl' on the Whata- 

 upoko, opposite the town of Gisborne. The pumice-mud 

 deposit is one of great interest, as it is from this deposit, 

 which must be at least 100ft. in thickness, that the fossil 

 feathers were obtained, together with a large collection of 

 beautifully-preserved leaf-impressions, ferns, seeds, fishes 

 (vertebrates), crabs, and other interesting specimens. 



The pumice-mud is of a creamy, whiteness, clayey to the 

 touch ; is free from grit of any kind ; can be u.sed like chalk for 

 writing ; can be slit like slate into thin plates, which will bend 

 without fracture ; and, lastly, it has a slaty cleavage. In places, 

 however, the rock passes into coarse pumice-sand, and in 

 others it becomes indurated, and has the appearance of a 

 siliceous sinter. Last year, in a paper on the " Distribution of 

 Pumice along the East Coast,"''' I referred to this deposit aS 



* " Trans. N.Z. Inst.," vol. xx., p. 293. 



