Hamilton. — The Moeraki Boulders. -14-7 



EXPLANATION OF PLATES XXVII.-XXVIII. 



Plate XXVII. 

 View of southern end of lower moraine looking north-west. 



Plate XXVI II. 



View taken in depression between the upper and lower mounds, 

 looking along the depression in a west-north-west direction. 



Art. XLIII. — On the Sectarian Boulders of Moeraki, Otago. 



By A. Hamilton. 



[Read before the Otago Institute, 12th November, 1901.] 



Plates XXIX.-XXXV. 



In the year 1848 Mr. Walter Mantell, as Government Com- 

 missioner for the Settlement of Native Land Claims in the 

 South Island, travelled on foot from Kaiapoi to the southern 

 settlements of Otago. An interesting summary of his notes 

 by the way was published by his father, Gideon Algernon 

 Mantell, in the " Proceedings of the Geological Society" for 

 the year 1850 (vol. vi., p. 319) .* On page 320 in that pub- 

 lication is a sketch-map of the geology of the coast-line so far 

 as could be gathered from his daily observations and from 

 information obtained from the natives, who at that time were 

 fairly numerous. Names of rivers and coastal features are 

 given from Kaiapoi to the Alolyneux Eiver. On reaching 

 what he calls Onekakara Bay he gives a sketch taken a little 

 south of Hampden, looking to the north, including the coastal 

 features as far as the " White Bluff," and in the foreground 

 is " a group of septarian boulders, called by the whalers 

 ' The Ninepins.' " 



Mr. Mantell says, " Midway between the bluff and 

 Moeraki the cjay contains layers of septaria varying from 

 1 ft. to 5 ft. and more in diameter. Hundreds of these 

 nodules, which had been washed out of the undermined clay 

 cliffs by the encroachment of the sea, were scattered along the 

 beach. Some were subglobular, others spherical, many were 

 entire, whilst others were broken and glittered with yellow 



* " Notice of the Remains of the Dinomis and other Birds, and of 

 Forest and Rock Specimens recently collected by Mr. Walter Mantell 

 in the Middle Island of New Zealand, with Additional Notes on the 

 Northern Island, by Gideon Algernon Mantell, Esq., LL.D., F.R.S., G.S., 

 &c. With Note on Fossiliferous Deposits in the Middle Island of New 

 Zealand, by Professor E. Forbes, F.R.S., &c." 



