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



sandy floors. On his return from his present mission he intends 

 to explore these caves and collect any relics they may contain. On 

 the present series from Waingongoro I will therefore only remark, 

 that it contains some very perfect tarso-metatarsals of that remarkable 

 type, named Aptornis by Professor Owen* ; a cranimn and several 

 upper mandibles of Falapteryx ; crania of Notornis ; and bones of 

 genera and species undetermined. A circumstance is worthy of re- 

 mark as indicative of the high antiquity of some of the bone deposits, 

 namely, that Moa bones were obtained from a bed of sandy marl 

 abounding in pipes of ironstone and masses of iron pyrites. 



Moa Deposit at Waikouaiti. 



The bones from the Middle Island are almost entirely from the 

 locality in which Dr. Mackellar and Mr. Percy Earl collected the spe- 

 cimens described in Zool. Trans, vol. iii. p. 313-319. The ossiferous 

 deposit at Waikouaiti is very dissimilar from that of Waingongoro. In- 

 stead of a fine dry incoherent volcanic sand, which has preserved the 

 bones in a state of integrity, and but slightly altered in composition 

 and colour, the bone-bed in the Middle Island is an ancient swamp or 

 morass, in which the New Zealand flax (Phormium tenax) once grew 

 luxuriantly ; it is now covered by a layer of sand, and is submerged 

 at high water, being visible only when the tide has receded. Its 

 inland boundary is obscured by vegetation, but from the notes of my 

 son, and the verbal account with which I have been favoured by Mr. 

 Alfred Wills, who has recently arrived in this country from New 

 Zealand, and who is well acquainted with the locality, the deposit 

 appears to be of very Umited extent. 



Fig. 8. — Sketch of the Coast at Island Point. 



Matainaka. 



Island Point. 



Fig. 9. — Ground Plan of Waikouaiti and Island Point, 



Native Pa. 



Mission 

 House. 



Yellow Bluff 



* Zoological Transactions, vol. iii. p. 347. 



