32 Mantell on Fossil Remains from Nero Zealand. 



have considerably changed. The rocks and strata in these local- 

 ities indicate generally both secondary and tertiary formations , 

 the former consisting of argillaceous schist, sandstone conglome- 

 rates, greensands, &c. ; the latter of clay, marly calcareous tufa, 

 sand, gravel, and alluvial deposits/ 7 The true situation of the 



Moa 



Colenso infers 



that they are found in the lowermost tertiary deposit. The lo- 

 calities mentioned by Mr. Colenso lie to the east of the volcanic 

 chain of Tongariro, and the rivers probably have their origin on 

 the flanks of that volcanic region. 



>r. Mackellar was from the Middle 

 Island, from a superficial turbary formation on the coast, which 

 was submerged at high tide, and is near the settlement at Waika- 

 icaite. Mr. Percy Earl, who obtained his specimens from the 

 same locality, mentions that this deposit, which is overflowed by 

 the sea at high tides, had been covered by a layer of sand and 

 shingle ; but this covering had been swept away by storm-waves 

 a short time before his arrival, and a bed of black peat was ex- 

 posed, from the surface of which bones projected; these and 

 other spe:imens were procured by digging close to the surface, 

 or at a moderate depth in the peat ; they were all Dinornis' bones.* 



The account given by the Rev. Mr. Taylor of Wanganui, a 

 settlement on the western coast of the North Island, near the 

 embouchure of the river of that name, lying to the south of Cape 

 Egmont, as New Plymouth does to the north, is, in substance as 

 follows: — 



In 1843 lie procured a collection of bones during a journey to 

 Turakma (r),f from having observed a fragment of large bone, 

 which induced him to inquire of the natives if such relics were 

 to be met with. The natives pointed out to him several little 

 hillocks of bones scattered here and there over the valley at the 

 mouth of the river Whaingaihu (?) where the sand had drifted. 

 Mr. Taylor describes these heaps as being composed of bones of 

 several kinds of Moa, as though the flesh of the birds had been 

 eaten, and the bones thrown indiscriminately together. The 

 bones were in so friable a state that only the large ones would 

 bear removal ; the smaller ones pulverize in the hand, and below 

 the surface the whole was a mass of decomposed bone. " The 

 subsoil was a loamy marl, beneath which was a stratum of clay 

 that chiefly forms the cliffs of this part of the western coast; it 

 contains numerous marine shells, and closely resembles in appear- 

 ance the gait of the southeast of England. I have no doubt it 



was whei 



face 



lived; for although it is laid bare by the river side, yet in other 

 parts it is wholly covered by several strata of marine and fresh- 



* Zool. Trans,, vol. Ill- i Ibid, iii, 327. 





