442 Proceedings. 
how many gradations there are, if measurement be taken as the sole 
criterion. 
Mr. Travers said that where the bones were found mature, Dr. Haast 
seemed to have determined their species by their relative proportions. Sup- 
posing it should be ascertained that the test was not a good one, Dr. Haast 
must be absolved from all blame, seeing that he had followed Professor 
. Owen. 
Mr. Mantell had not considered it necessary to state that he merely 
wished to remark that Dr. Haast showed great courage in endeavouring to 
determine species upon no other data than (what he took the liberty of con- 
sidering) the very unsatisfactory test adopted by Professor Owen. 
2. “On Indications of Changes in the Level of the Coast Line of the 
Southern Part of the North Island, as deduced from the Occurrence of 
drift Pumice,” by J. C. Crawford, F.G.S. 
ABSTRACT. 
Mr. Crawford remarked that pumice, having a fadi specifie gravity, 
floats in water, and in the rivers flowing from the volcanic plateau in the 
interior of this island it may be seen descending in great quantities and at all 
hours towards the sea; when there, it is of course liable to be washed up at 
any point of the shore, and if there is no cause again to carry it away, it 
necessarily remains stranded. 
Pumice is found on the flats in the Peninsula, near this city, at a height 
of about eight or ten feet above the present high watermark. He had not 
observed it on any of the coast terraces, consequently it is probable that the 
land had attained within ten to twenty feet of its present level before the 
voleanic chain sent pumice to the sea; and this will give an age to the 
present coast line, or to one from ten to twenty feet lower (supposing a 
steady rise of the land), enough to satisfy a very ardent lover of antiquity. 
He concluded by saying, “ It may therefore be held that the probabilities 
are against any great oscillation of the present sea level in this part of New 
Zealand since the commencement of the vast period which must have elapsed 
since the central voleanie group of Tongariro and Ruapehu (and Mount 
Egmont inclusive) began to send down pumice to the coast.” 
Dr. Hector said that pumice was a mechanical variety of obsidian, the 
most perfectly fused product of volcanic eruption, and did not indicate 
any particular era in a volcanic eruption, or elevation of a chain of moun- 
tains, as Mr. Crawford seemed to require for his theory. The whole of the 
. eastern shore of Lake Taupo had been formed by wind-blown pumice. 
= Along some of the rivers that had cut through the slate rocks on their way 
o the sea 4 pugs acest were terraces with pumice clinging to the 
D NM ieu dede 
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