144 Historical Notes on the 



placed several workmen at my disposal, with. whom for a number of days 

 I made some very successful excavations, having been anxious to find 

 some skeletons, of which at least some of the principal bones were still 

 lying together. The results of these excavations surpassed my highest 

 expectations, and towards the middle of December I returned to 

 Christchurch, truly delighted with my success. The generous gift of 

 Mr. Moore, and the bones excavated under my direction, filled a large 

 American four-horse waggon. The taxidermist to the Museum, the 

 late Mr. F. E. Puller, articulated under my direction from this 

 collection the first seven moa skeletons, which still form such con- 

 spicuous objects in the Canterbury Museum, and were the beginning 

 of that remarkable collection, with no rival in the world. 



Jouexey TO THE Waipaea ANT) HrBrycr, 1867. 

 Before making my usual autumnal journey into the interior of the 

 Province, I left on January 20th, to visit its north-eastern portion, 

 with which I was still unacquainted. After first visiting Grlenmark, 

 I followed the broad valley of the Omihi, crossing near its sources 

 into a branch of the Waikari, and from which the Cabbage-tree 

 flat, the upper portion of the valley of the Greta, is reached. 

 Crossing over into the head waters of the Motunau river, I examined, 

 near Cave station, the beds of brown coal, and other minerals of 

 economic value occurring there. From here I followed the Motunau 

 for a short distance, and then passing over the Coast range, the 

 "Burnt-hut" hills, I arrived at Motunau station, then belonging 

 to Mr. Caverhill. Several days were devoted to an examination of 

 the cretaceo-tertiary and young tertiary beds, tracing the brown 

 coal seams, and collecting fossils. The small plateau lying between 

 Motunau and Stonyhurst Station, which is deeply cut into by 

 Blackbirch and other creeks, was next examined 5 after which, on 

 February 5th, I crossed over Pendlehill into the Hurunui, which 

 was ascended for some distance. A few days were devoted to an 

 examination of the Grreta and the lower Waikari, in the latter of 

 which a fine series of fossils were collected in the middle tertiary 

 beds, so well exposed along the banks of the river. Crossing the 

 ranges again from the TVaikari to Grlenmark, and thence by the 

 "Weka Pass to the Hurunui, I was enabled to unravel the somewhat 

 complicated structure of the different beds by which these interesting 

 ranges are formed. Towards the middle of February I returned to 

 Christchurch. 



