412 Transactions.— Geology. 
the clay, I excavated but a small paddock in the lignite, and getting nothing 
more than I had already obtained in a better condition from the first paddock, 
I did not think it necessary to continue the work of excavation. 
Of the moa bones collected, all of them seem to be referable to not more 
than two species; and of these the bones of Dinornis elephantopus certainly 
constitute nine-tenths of the whole. 
e remains of other birds were very rare in the bone-bed, belonging, 
with the exception of a few fragments, to Harpagornis moorei. All the bones 
of this species that were strong enough to resist the pressure of the over- 
lying deposit are beautifully preserved. The only part which has suffered 
damage from this cause is the skull, which, occupying an interspace 
between two large moa bones, managed to escape total destruction. 
A curious feature in the mode of occurrence of these Harpagornis bones 
is that all those of the leg and wing were found with their greatest length 
vertical in the bone-bed. This was also noticeable in the case of most of 
the immature moa bones. 
Finding that there was but small probability of finding the skeleton of 
an individual moa by itself, and equally little being the hope of securing 
the material to construct one, I had to be contented with making a selection 
of the larger leg bones and such vertebre ribs and toe bones as were met 
with during the progress of the excavation. 
I have already mentioned that the bone-bed was covered to some depth 
by a deposit of gravel, clay, and loamy soil, and that it rested on a bed of 
well-worn gravel the thickness of which could not be ascertained at the 
place where the bones were found. 
From a little south of the Motanau River to Stonyhurst, a distance of 
seven miles, these gravels overlying tertiary strata form between the coast 
range and the shore line a table-land elevated 200 to 300 feet above the 
sea. On the seaward side this is bounded by a line of high cliffs washed by 
the tide at high water. Besides the Motanau River, there are three smaller 
streams which rising on the western break through the eastern ridge of the 
coast range and flow across these flats in narrow channels, which are now so 
deeply cut that until an elevation of the coast-line takes place, they have no 
power to cut them deeper. A number of smaller streams rising on the 
flats or commencing from the slopes of the neighbouring ranges, have near 
the coast-line cut deep channels quite to the base of the sea cliffs. The deep 
narrow gulches thus formed do not as yet extend across the whole breadth 
of the flats, but terminate abruptly in a cliff beyond which there is no 
water-course, and as a rule no permanent stream. North of 
Boundary Grek, which reaches the sea ‘three miles north of Motanss, - 
