616 Transactions,—Geology. 
In a low sandy country exposed to the full force of the westerly winds, 
the light materials would continually be driven easterly until brought up 
by the cliffs, against which they would be piled until a sufficient slope was 
formed to allow of their finally mounting the top, and then forming the 
sand-dunes we now see. Those who are acquainted with the strip of 
country lying on the South Kaipara head, and extending thence to Muriwai, : 
will at once recognize that the above supposition is applicable as a descrip- 
tion of that part of the country. Here the cliffs are present at from one to 
three miles from the beach, but generally hidden by a sloping bank of sand, 
partially covered with vegetation, with a line of sand-dunes forming the 
highest parts of the range. Even the traditional lagoons, forming a long 
interrupted line of fresh water, and celebrated for their eels, are also there, 
completing the similarity between this country and that described by 
Aihepene. The north head of Kaipara furnishes perhaps a better illustra- 
tion than even the south head, for here we have in close conjunction the low 
sandy tract with its moving sand-dunes, lagoons, and scattered thickets of 
manuka, with the inland line of hills, covered by sand; and to the north, a 
few miles, the same line of hills rising perpendicularly from the beach with 
the long and broken range of sand-hills capping the cliffs. 
The natives of Kaipara have a tradition that the banks at the bar of 
that harbour were once dry land upon which their forefathers lived and 
cultivated; but this must have been at a much earlier age than that in 
which part of the Manukau Bar was dry, for here we find that this tradition 
is mixed up with one of their old myths, inasmuch as this is given as the 
locality in which Tinirau’s pet whale, Tutunui, was killed by Kae as related 
in Sir George Grey’s “ Mythology and Traditions of the New Zealanders.” 
We need not seek far for sufficient causes for these alterations in the 
coast-line. The known alternations in the level of the sea-line, caused by 
elevation or depression of the land giving rise to and altering the 
directions of currents, is ample to account for the disappearance of such a 
strip of land as is described in Aihepene Raihau’s tradition as above. 
