326 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Feb. 27, 



** In one of these septaria I perceived the fractured end of the 

 portion of bone enclosed (fig. 6, b) ; it ran straight into the mass, 

 which was two feet in diameter. This fragment of bone is flattened, 

 and is 1-i- inch in its longest diameter ; its cancellated structure ap- 

 pears to me to resemble that of the Moa : as it is the only vestige 

 of a fossil bone I have found in the ancient tertiaiy strata of New 

 Zealand, I hope you will deem it interesting*. 



"At Onekakara, strata of a green gritty marl, much contorted, 

 and in some places almost vertical, crop out from beneath the blue 

 clay ; these are traversed here and there by veins and layers of nodules 

 of iron pyrites. The water which flows from these beds is highly 

 saline and chalybeate, and of course extremely nauseous ; but as no 

 better can be obtained within a considerable distance, it is constantly 

 used by the natives at the Kaika for domestic purposes. 



" On the south, immediately beyond the native settlement at Moe- 

 raki, a dark porphyritic rock with broken crystals of felspar appears ; 

 it is traversed in every direction by veins of quartz and chalcedony, 

 often very beautifully coloured. This rock continues to the end of 

 the native Reserve at Waimataitai, where the tertiary blue clay again 

 emerges, and forms the low chffs of Katiki Bay. In the bight of 

 this bay the bed of septaria previously described reappears ; the no- 

 dules in this locahty contain a far larger amount of iron and less lime 

 than those before mentioned. The space at the foot of the chfPs left 

 bare at low water was literally covered by septaria of various sizes, 

 from a few inches to thirteen feet in diameter. The spot is known 

 to the whalers by the name of * Vulcmt' s foundry .'' 



" I much regret that it was out of my power to leave the inland path 

 from Katiki Bay to examine Matakea Point, where good coal is said 

 to occur ; but a smith at Onekakara, who had tried it, inforaied me, 

 it was so sulphurous, that he was obliged to discontinue its use. 



" Before reaching * Pleasant River ' I again traversed the beach for 



and the results confirm the opinion that the New Zealand septaria wiU afford ex- 

 cellent cement. 



Carbonate of lime 66'7 



Silica 16-2 



Almnina 10*4 



Peroxide of iron 4*7 



Organic matter 2-0 



100-0 



estimated without water ; of which, when sent, it contained two per cent. — G. A.M. 

 * The external form of this fragment conveys no idea of its nature ; but slices 

 carefully prepared for the microscope, present, under a moderately magnifying 

 power, a structure which shows that the bone belonged to a bird ; there is however 

 no proof that it can be referred to the Dinornis. Mr. Tomes and Mr. Bowerbank, 

 who have obliged me by examining the specimen, concur in this opinion. Insig- 

 nificant as this fact may appear, still, in these early pages of the palaeontological 

 history of our antipodean colonies, it is worthy of remark, that the first-discovered 

 fossil relic of the terrestrial vertebrata in the tertiary strata of New Zealand 

 should belong to that class which, in later periods, constituted the principal t}^es 

 of the wai'm-blooded animals of the fauna of that country, to the almost entire 

 exclusion of the mammalia. — G. A. M. 



