﻿128 Transactions. — Miscellaneous.. 



inches below tlie level of the alluvial deposit above, the rock, however, dipping 

 eastward to about ten degrees. 



My knowled;ge does not entitle me to build any theory on the facts observed, 

 save this, that these footmarks are those of a bird proceeding southward over a 

 sandy mud surface, soft enough to receive the impressions, and hard enough to 

 retain them ; a surface shortly after protected by a layer of pure sand, probably 

 deposited dry ; afterwards receiving successive depositions of similar sandy mud, 

 having time to partially consolidate and receive a renewed drift of dry sand, 

 and so on until an immense deposit of alluvium created the present soil of 

 five feet deep, which was afterwards scooped out by the Waikanae Creek, till 

 the rock surface was arrived at. This is all very recent, and deserves the 

 attention of those having more time and knowledge at their disposal than I 

 have. 



Art. X. — On the Geographical and other Features of some Little-Tcnown 

 Portions of the Province of Wellingtmi. By H. C. Field. 



[Bead before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 2Qth Aurjust, 1871.] 



The district to which this paper refers is that which lies between Taupo Lake, 



the Kaimanawa Range, and the source of the Wanganui E,iver, and the settled 



districts on the north shore of Cook Straits ; and is known to the natives as 



"Murimotu." Until lately, the whole, or nearly so, of the region in question 



was supposed, and actually appeared from the seaward side, to be a congeries 



of the most broken wooded country which it was possible to conceive. It 



was known that immediately under the skirts of Euapehu and the Kaimanawa 



there was some open grassy country ; but as some of those who had travelled 



from E,angitikei to Taupo and back asserted that they had not seen an acre of 



level gi'oxmd the whole way, and others spoke of a stony desert lying to the 



eastward of Euapehu, which it was dangerous to cross on account of the 



masses of rock which often come rolling down on to it from the mountain 



side, it was not genei^ally supposed that even these so-called plains were of 



much value, owing to their uncertain extent and apparent inaccessibility. The 



absence of any known native tracks leading into the region in question, except 



from Eangitikei on the one side, and the upper waters of the Wanganui Eiver 



on the other, in both cases over country of the most rugged description, 



tended to confirm the general idea of the worthlessness of the locality for 



purposes of settlement ; and thus it was not until the reported discovery of 



gold at Kaimanawa turned the attention of the Wanganui settlers to the 



desirability of getting a road in that direction, that any attempt was made to 



penetrate it. The result of that supposed discovery, however, was not only 



