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is not so easy to ascertain. Indeed, the whole phenomena seem to point to a 

 slow raising of the land round our coasts. Old Maoris say that the Ocean 

 Beach was once a shoal, and that the tides met. Indeed, thei-e is one point of 

 the Ocean Beach where it is not an unlikely thing that an extra high tide, 

 accompanied by a heavy sea, would work a channel through to the St. Kilda 

 flat inside. The hills are neither wide nor high, and there is very often a large 

 shallow sheet of water left by the tide. But then all over the St. Kilda flat 

 the ground is full of the trunks of big trees, which must have grown on the 

 spot. To reconcile these two, there must have been a lowering and then a 

 raising.* At the Heads, when the first settlers came, the sand bank was much 

 less in extent than at present. In front of Kelvin Grove there was a pretty 

 large lagoon, frequented by ducks and other fowl, not a vestige of which 

 remains. A number of natives used to live around the bottom of the bay ; 

 they have long been driven off to the higher ground, and from this in turn 

 they seem likely to be driven still further off by the sand flood which is slowly 

 but surely advancing towards their clearings on the further side of the hill. 

 It is about eight years since the writer first traversed this particular bank, and 

 in that time it has grown considerably, both in length and breadth, and depth. 

 This part of the subject is one of very considerable difiiculty, and the writer 

 must leave its further consideration in the meantime, trusting that wiser heads 

 than his own may give the matter some attention, with a view to the 

 elucidation of the almost paradoxical phenomena which are presented by the 

 sand dunes around Dunedin. 



When rambling about among the sand hills one day, my attention was 

 directed to some very curious stones which were lying about in one of the 

 permanent hollows. I collected a few samples, and showed them to various 

 people, but to all they were quite a puzzle, though opinion evidently inclined 

 to the belief that they were artificial. I was very agreeably surprised, on 

 looking over the new volume of the Transactions,f to find that similar stones 

 had been found near Wellington, and described and figured in the volume. 

 I lay a few specimens on the table for the inspection of the members to give 

 them a better idea of what they are like. 



* This undoubtedly was the case, as round the coast of New Zealand the evidence of 

 a 25-ft. raised beach is distinct, prior to the formation of which submergence prevailed. 

 —Ed. 



+ Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, Vol. ii., Art. LXII., — "On the Sand-worn 

 Stones of Evans' Bay," by W. T. L. Travers, F.L.S. 



