406 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



not to have altered, as it did when crossed with other breeds : 

 this would lead to a supposition of affinity between the two 

 flocks. 



These spotted sheep have probably lived in the parks of 

 Tabley and Chatsworth for a number of generations, and I see 

 no reason why they should not be descendants of the original 

 sheep of Britain. 



The Chillingham and Hamilton cattle, one a white horned 

 and the other a white polled race, are considered to be the 

 remnant of the herds which used to roam the forests of 

 Britain. 



Both the cattle and sheep have been kept in parks belong- 

 ing to wealthy families, and been handed down from genera- 

 tion to generation as special heirlooms or adjuncts of the 

 parks, and so have been preserved to the present day. There- 

 fore I see no reason why these sheep should not be the 

 original unimproved British sheep. It is unreasonable to 

 always look to other countries for the origin of our different 

 breeds of British sheep. 



Art. LIV. — Notes on tlie Waikato River Basins. 



By L. CussEN. 



it 

 [Bead before the Auckland Institute, 17th December, 1888.] 



Plates XXXIV. and XXXV. 



The Waikato Eiver seems to have been subject to apparently 

 abnormal changes in its course from an early period in its 

 history. Incidental reference to these changes is to be found 

 in several of the works on the geology and physiography of 

 the country, but, so far as I know, the subject has never been 

 dealt with in a comprehensive manner. At each change the 

 river would appear to have left its natural valley, and, turning 

 westward, to have found a new course through high moun- 

 tainous country which separates one basin from the other. 

 Thus it appears to have worked in a diagonal line across the 

 country, from east to west, crossing three primary river- valleys. 

 In consequence of these facts, the physiographical history of 

 the basins, regarded as a description of the surface-configura- 

 tion of the Waikato Valley due to a combination of the effects 

 of volcanic action and planetary denudation, is of more than 

 ordinary interest. 



Unlike many of the large questions which geologists have 

 to deal with, the study of the earth's surface-features is within 

 the limits of our most familiar experiences, and requires no 

 special scientific knowledge for its understanding. The plain 



