1848.] MANTELL ON FOSSIL REMAINS FROM NEW ZEALAND. 239 
appears to rise in Mount Egmont (the volcanic ridge which is 9000 
feet high); indeed it must have its source there, or in the short 
chain of hills which lies between that mountain and the coast in a 
westerly direction ; for in returning to New Plymouth by the moun- 
tain road—a forest-track at the back of the volcanic ridge—I must 
have crossed it, did it rise elsewhere. The Waingongoro evidently 
discharged itself at some distant period into the sea, far from its pre- 
sent embouchure, as is proved by the existence of a line of cliffs 
which extends inland, and has clearly been produced by the eroding 
action of the river. Driven from its course, probably by a change in 
Fig..2. 
Vertical Section of the Cliff. 
=== 1. Vegetable mould. 
e9oF 
® © ©| 2. Volcanic conglomerate. 
GO %, 
3. Finely laminated sand. 
4. Blue clay with recent marine shells. 
the relative level of the land and sea, it has formed its present chan- 
nel, which cuts through a hundred feet of loose conglomerate, over- 
lying a bed of finely laminated sand, and containing wood in a very 
recent state,—so recent as to bear cutting with a knife. 
«The conglomerate is composed of an infinite variety of volcanic 
rocks, with numerous immense rounded masses of the same kind. 
The following sketch will give you a general idea of the structure of 
the coast from Wanganui to Taranaki; but the distances are of course 
merely approximative and very incorrect, and so also is probably the 
Fig. 3. 
Section of the Coast from Waimati to Wanganui. 
Mount Egmont, 
in the remote distance. Wanganui. 
AK pene Fast 1 2. 
SSS ee —————— ee TSSOs. Sa eS ae ~ 3. 
2. Volcanic conglomerate. 4. Blue clay with recent marine shells. 
3. Sand with birds’ bones and egg-shells. 
Sor 
=> iS 
highest point of the clay, but I know you will understand my meaning 
better by this rough diagram than by mere description. The clay 
abounds in marine shells, all of existing species (?) ; the upper layers 
contain but few shells, but the lowermost abound in them, and they 
are in a perfect state—not drifted shells. In a stratum of sand at 
_ Wanganui the shells of a sandy-bottomed sea are found, with some 
fragments of large Nautili. 
« Between Takikau and Ohawetokotoko there is a wide flat of un- 
dulating sand, about two hundred yards across (Fig. 1, a, a, a). On 
my first visit the surface was covered with bones of men, moas and 
seals, &c., which had been overhauled by the Rev. R. Taylor. I had 
