i 
McKay.—On a Deposit of Moa Bones near Motanau. 413 
surface of the flats undulates in low rolling downs, and one or two isolated 
hills stand above the general level. Close past the southern side of one of 
these hills runs the little creek in the banks of which the moa bones are 
found. Just abreast of the little hill the creek breaks the surface of the 
flat and plunges into the deeper channel, which it cuts through the gravels, 
and further down its course into the underlying tertiary strata. Along this 
and other creeks numerous sections show that a heavy deposit of well- 
rounded gravel of uniform size overlies the tertiary marine beds. The gravels 
are parted 20 or 30 feet from their base by sandy clays, which at many 
places contain trunks of trees or pass into beds of impure peaty lignite. 
This is the horizon of the moa bones. Above this lies an indefinite thickness 
of gravel and silt, variable on account of having been unequally denuded in 
different localities. : 
Professor Haast’s researches at Glenmark appear to have led him to the 
conclusion that there the moa bones occurred in three different horizons. 
These in descending order are :— 
1. The turbary deposits near Glenmark homestead, from which the 
great bulk of the collections in the Canterbury Museum were 
made. 
2. The alluvial deposits of Glenmark Creek and the Omihi Valley. 
8. Pleistocene deposits occurring in Glenmark Creek, one mile above 
the home station. 
In trying to correlate the Motanau bone-bed with either of these it is at 
once apparent that this can only be done with No. 2 or 3. 
The character of the deposits forming No. 2 agrees well, both as regards 
the material and the sequence, with the Motanau beds; but the alluvial 
deposits of the Omihi Valley show not the least sign of having been denuded 
further than by the excavation of the present creek beds, while the Motanau 
flats, especially towards the northern end, have been so far denuded that 
the surface forms low rolling downs with here and there a low isolated 
hill, of which an example stands close to the locality where the bones are 
found. oo 
It is true that at Motanau these gravels are isolated from the fringe of 
gravels skirting the coast line near the mouth of the Waipara, and also from 
an extensive development of gravels on both banks of the Hurunui, and near 
Gore Bay, Cheviot Hills. At Gore Bay these gravels are in their lower beds 
alternations of silt and angular gravels, in which large angular blocks are 
of frequent occurrence. The upper beds are well rounded gravels, clay, and 
loam, as at Motanau, but here the total thickness is much greater, ranging 
from 800 to 500 feet. ee 
