ROOM II. 



MOA-BED AT WAIKOUATI. 



99 



afl 



on the south-eastern shore of the Middle Island. The fol- 

 lowing account of this locality is extracted from Mr. Walter 

 Mantell's notes : 



" Near Waikouaiti, seventeen miles north of Otago, there 

 is a headland called Island Point, about three quarters of a 

 mile in length and 150 feet in height ; 

 it consists of sandy clay, distinctly stra- 

 tified, and traversed by dykes of columnar 

 trap, the columns being at right angles 

 to the sides of the veins. In a little 

 bight south of Island Point, on the 

 side of the bar which unites that head- 

 land to the mainland at the entrance 

 of the river Waikouati, in front of the 

 ^ native Kaika, named Makuku, is situated 

 w the exposed part of the so-called turbary 

 H deposit, whence bones of Moas and other 

 I birds of various kinds, have been ob- 

 tained in such number and perfection. 

 This bed is about three feet in depth 

 < and not more than a hundred yards in 

 s ^ length, and lies immediately on a stratum 

 of tertiary blue clay j its inland boundary- 

 is obscured by vegetation, and appears 

 to be of very limited extent ; the bed 

 is entirely submerged, and only visible 

 when the tide has receded. 



" It consists almost wholly of decayed 

 vegetable matter, and its surface is 

 studded with the undisturbed roots of 

 small trees which appear to have been 

 burnt to the ground at some remote 

 period. It is a light, sandy, elastic earth, 

 of a blackish brown colour, and emits a 

 strong fetid odour when first collected, 

 from the large quantity of animal 

 matter it contains. I conceive it was 

 originally a swamp or morass, in which the New Zealand flax 

 (Phormium tenax,) once grew luxuriantly. It is now covered 

 by a thin layer of sand when exposed at low water. 

 " " The above sketch of the coast, (Lign. 24,) will serve to illus- 



