444 Geology of 



2 feet layer of sandy peat, much compressed 



3 „ ferruginous sands, sometimes argillaceous 

 3+ „ river shingle, with a ferruginous matrix 

 4|- ,, argillaceous sands 



4 ,, river shingle, rather coarse 



This lowest bed reposes on bluish micaceous sands, belonging to the 

 Pareora formation, and dipping 14 degrees to the south by west. In 

 the peaty layer the bones of a skeleton of Palaptergcc crassus, were 

 lying together. "\Ye were able to extract many of the principal ones 

 but several of them were either broken, or had become flattened by 

 the superincumbent weight of the strata. Descending the creek 

 towards the Grlenmark Station, and approaching the spot, where the 

 turbary deposits have yielded the great harvest of Moa-bones, we find 

 that the valley has enlarged to a breadth of nearly a quarter of a mile. 

 Here the creek makes a sharp bend, flowing nearly at right angles to 

 the direction of the valley, from the eastern to the western side, and 

 exposes a fine section (Xo S, on plate 9) exhibiting the following beds 

 in descending order. 



Ko. 1. 8 feet of Loess 

 „ 2. 4 ., of small river shingle consisting of palaeozoic 



sandstone and old tertiary limestone 

 ,, 3. 1 „ of sandy silt 



„ 4. 6 ,, of small river shingle, well stratified 

 „ 5. 1\ „ of peaty layer, contaiuiug a great number of 



3Ioa-bones 

 ,, 6. 10 „ of rker shingle cemented together by a ferru- 



The lowest few feet cannot be observed as they are covered over by 

 recent accumulations, and a talus from above. All these beds have 

 a dip of about seven degrees, towards the centre of the valley, where 

 the inward dip ceases, so that they appear to be horizontal. There 

 is however a small inclination down the valley. JSos. 3, 4, and 5, 

 are here of much broader dimensions, the peat bed ]S"o. 5 being 

 nearly three feet thick. In the last mentioned layer, we obtained 

 not only nearly every species of the DiiiornithidcE, but also a 

 few remains of Cnemiomis and Apttomis, together with a broken 

 femur of Harpagomis. The bones are all very heavy and fossilized 

 from calcareous matter filling the pores, consequently they are very 

 different in character, from the bones occurring in the turbary deposit 



