96 PETRIFACTIONS AND THEIR TEACHINGS. CHAP. II. 



various species and. genera, and differing considerably in 

 magnitude and age ; some belonging to very young individuals 

 in which the epiphyses of the long bones are distinct from the 

 shaft ; while others are those of adult and aged birds. The 

 chief part of this collection is deposited in the Table-Cases 

 15, 16, 17. 1 



GEOLOGY OF NEW ZEALAND. The fossil bones of birds 

 from New Zealand, in the British Museum, have been 

 obtained from two localities, which are several hundred miles 

 distant from each other; one being in the North, and the 

 other in the South Island ; and the deposits in which they 

 occur differ considerably in their geological and mineral ogical 

 character. 



As the interest of these fossil remains is intimately con- 

 nected with the physical conditions under which they were 

 deposited, we will first briefly explain the geological structure 

 of the country, and afterwards .describe the localities whence 

 the bones were obtained. 



NEW ZEALAND is situated in the South Pacific Ocean, lying 

 between the thirtieth and fiftieth degrees of south latitude, 

 and forming a group of three mountainous islands, which in 

 their aggregate extent equal that of England and Wales. Its 

 geological structure is with difficulty determined, owing to the 

 primeval forests which fringe the coasts ; and where these 

 have been destroyed by ancient conflagrations, by impenetrable 

 thickets of esculent ferns. The fundamental rock is clay- 

 slate, and this is frequently traversed by greenstone dykes, as 

 at Port Nicholson, Queen Charlotte's Sound, and "Cloudy 

 Bay. 



On the banks of the rivers Eritonga, Waibo, and along 

 some parts of the sea-coast, there are horizontal terraces of 

 trap-boulders fifty feet high. Anthracite crops out in the 

 harbour of Wangarua ; and there is a seam of the same 

 mineral intercalated in the sandstone on the east shores of the 

 North Island. 



The coasts are in many places skirted by recent horizontal 

 sediments, consisting of loam with fragments of wood and 

 fern, &c. The small rocky islets of trachyte off the coast of 



1 This collection was purchased hy the Trustees of the British Museum 

 for 200?. See Appendix B. Mr. Walter ManteU's Collection. 



