616 Transactions. — Geology. 



In a low sandy country exposed to the full force of the westerly winds, 

 the light materials would continually be driven easterly until brought up 

 by the cliffs, against which they would be piled until a sufficient slope was 

 formed to allow of their finally mounting the top, and then forming the 

 sand-dunes we now see. Those who are acquainted with the strip of 

 country lying on the South Kaipara head, and extending thence to Muriwai, 

 will at once recognize that the above supposition is applicable as a descrip- 

 tion of that part of the country. Here the cliffs are present at from one to 

 three miles from the beach, but generally hidden by a sloping bank of sand, 

 partially covered with vegetation, with a line of sand-dunes forming the 

 highest parts of the range. Even the traditional lagoons, forming a long 

 interrupted line of fresh water, and celebrated for their eels, are also there, 

 completing the similarity between this country and that described by 

 Aihepene. The north head of Kaipara furnishes perhaps a better illustra- 

 tion than even the south head, for here we have in close conjunction the low 

 sandy tract with its moving sand-dunes, lagoons, and scattered thickets of 

 manuka, with the inland hue of hills, covered by sand ; and to the north, a 

 few miles, the same line of hills rising perpendicularly from the beach with 

 the long and broken range of sand-hills capping the cliffs. 



The natives of Kaipara have a tradition that the banks at the bar of 

 that harbour were once dry land upon which their forefathers lived and 

 cultivated ; but this must have been at a much earlier age than that in 

 which part of the Manukau Bar was dry, for here we find that this tradition 

 is mixed up with one of their old myths, inasmuch as this is given as the 

 locality in which Tinirau's pet whale, Tutunui, was killed by Kae as related 

 in Sh^ George Grey's " Mythology and Traditions of the New Zealanders." 



We need not seek far for sufficient causes for these alterations in the 

 coast-line. The known alternations in the level of the sea-line, caused by 

 elevation or depression of the land giving rise to and altering the 

 directions of currents, is ample to account for the disappearance of such a 

 strip of land as is described in Aihepene Eaihau's tradition as above. 



