CrawForp.—Notes on Miramar Peninsula. 397 
The appearance of the gravel-bars shows that the sea ran in upon a shallow 
surface at high tide, as at Napier, and after filling the interior area ran out 
again at low tide, probably then leaving the bar dry. Three gravel-bars are 
very distinct ; the chief one faces Lyall Bay, another lies towards the northern 
end of the old bed of Burnham Water, and the most northern is found at the 
narrow neck of the upper valley. 
The stratification of the flat, as far as can be observed, is a basis of gravel ; 
next a stratum of sand and gravel, containing marine shells of the following 
species, the names of which have been determined for me by Capt. Hutton :— 
Fusus zealandicus, F, linea, Buccinum maculatum, B. testudineum, 
Purpura scobina, Ancillaria australis, Natica zealandica, Struthiolaria nodulosa, 
Turritella rosea, Cladopoda zealandica, Calyptrea maculata, Rotella zealandica, 
Polydonta tiarata, Labio zealandicus, Diloma nigerrima, Cantharides elegans, 
Nacella radians, Siphonaria denticulata, Myodora striata, Mactra discors, 
Mesodesma cuneata, Chione yatei, C. costata, O. stutchburyi, C. dieffenbachii, 
C. mesodesma, C. gibbosa, sp. nov. Ms., Dosinia subrosea, Tapes intermedia, 
Mytilus smaragdinus, M. dunkeri, Ostrea purpurea. 
On or within this stratum pumice-stone is found in considerable quantity, 
and also remains of the moa, 
The shells and pumice may be said to lie at the height of five or six feet 
above high water-mark. Above this, over several hundred acres, are con- 
siderable accumulations of vegetable remains, consisting of peat several feet in 
thickness, containing roots, stems, and branches of trees. 
In Ludlam gully, on the eastern side of the flat, a formation of an 
apparently older date is found inclined at a high angle, containing a stratum 
of old soil or semi-lignite. 
Several travelled boulders of granite and of schist, whose nearest locality 
in situ must be the mountains of Tasman Gulf, have been found on the bed 
of Burnham Water, and in other localities where they are unlikely to have 
been brought by canoes. Excluding the action of floating ice we must suppose 
that they were carried either by sea-weed or imbedded in the roots of trees. 
Pumice, which is deposited in considerable quantity, was no doubt floated 
down from the Wanganui river, and carried inside the bars when the land 
was at a lower level. ; 
The remains of old habitation on the Miramar Peninsula are numerous, 
and of considerable interest. Many of the kitchen-middens appear to be of 
ancient date, as they have been covered by drift sand and afterwards by 
vegetation, and have now again been uncovered. Their localities, with those 
on the isthmus, can be seen by a reference to Pl. XXI. 
In the year 1840, when the first European settlers landed on the shores 
of Port Nicholson, the hills of the peninsula were chiefly clothed with the 
