Mantell on Fossil Remains from Neiv Zealand. 33 



water deposits. I have found the bones of the Moa in this bed, 

 not only in other parts of the western, hut also in the eastern 

 . coast, at the East Cape, and at Poverty Bay. I have not heard 

 of this deposit having been noticed north of Turakina (?).*" 



All the specimens sent from the localities above mentioned, 

 with the exception of those from the South or Middle Island, are 

 in the state of the mammalian bones that occur in the ancient 

 alluvial deposits of England. They are permeated and colored 

 more or less deeply by a solution of iron, and the cancelli are 

 filled by the mud or silt in which they were found imbedded. 

 They are but little water- worn, and have not suffered much 

 abrasion ; having, probably, been protected by the muscles and 

 soft parts during their transport to the places where they were de- 

 posited. In short, their state of fossil ization corroborates the ac- 

 counts given of the nature of the alluvial bed from which they 

 were procured ; they strikingly resemble in this respect the bones 

 of the Irish Elk, Mammoth, &c. of our diluvium. 



But the bones collected by my son present a very different ap- 

 pearance from any previously received from New Zealand ; in- 

 stead of being of a dark color, heavy, and permeated by silt and 

 iron, they are, on the contrary, light and porous, and of a delicate 

 fawn-color; the most fragile processes being entire, and the ar- 

 ticulating surfaces as smooth and uninjured as if prepared by the 

 anatomist: egg-shells, mandibles, even the - bomj rings of the 

 air-tubes are preserved. In their general aspect these bones most 

 resemble those from Gaylenreuth and other ossiferous caverns. 

 The state of preservation of these specimens is evidently due to 

 the material in which they were imbedded, which is a loose vol- 

 canic sand, containing magnetic iron, crystals of hornblende and 



&c 



This 



sand has filled all the cavities and cancelli that have external 

 openings, but is in no instance consolidated or aggregated to- 

 gether ; it is easily removed from the bones by shaking, or by a 



soft brush. 



pebbles 



were the only extraneous bodies found in the sand : there are no 

 vestiges of shells or mollusca of any kind ; but there is in the 

 collection a small Area imbedded in a sandy clay, and an ammo- 

 JJte coated with pyril 

 Kimmeridae clay of ] 

 genuine British fossil. 



. The name of Wat 

 tions 



ex from the 

 ishable from a 



JUH- 



tions as that where he dug up the greater part of his collection, 

 «oes not appear in the maps of New Zealand I have inspected : 

 pat from some incidental remarks in his letters, I have reason to 

 lr *fer that it is situated in the higher part of the valley of the 



* See Prof. Owen's Memoir on the Dinoniis, Zool. Trans., vol. iii. p. 327. 

 Second Series, Vol. VII, No. 19.— Jan., 1849. 5 



