Canterbury and Westland. 445 



lying on the top of the banks, about one hundred yards lower down 

 the valley. This is the more important, because the bones in both 

 beds belong all to the same species notwithstanding their great 

 difference in age. Section No. 8, on plate 9, gives the details of the 

 relations of these deposits to each other. 



Close to the bend of Grleninark Creek, a small rill, now scarcely con- 

 taining any water, comes down from the outrunning ridge here about 

 200 feet high, bounding the valley on the eastern side. It has a very 

 short course, its source being on the summit not far off:. This rill 

 however, instead of falling into the creek, loses itself in the swampy 

 ground on the top of the terrace, where doubtless a lagoon of consi- 

 derable extent existed, before the turbary beds were formed. It is 

 evident that a long lapse of time has been necessary to fill this pre- 

 existing hollow with turbary deposits, and other material brought 

 into the lagoon, and that during all that time the deposition of Moa- 

 bones went on at intervals. I do not know if Moa-bones are found 

 all over the bed of this former lagoon, many acres in extent, but 

 as far as I have examined the deposits over an area of 500 feet 

 in length, by 200 feet in breadth, they occur mostly in patches. 

 The most important fact in connection with the remarkable accumu- 

 lation of dinornithic remains in this locality is their occurrence along 

 the small rim of water previously alluded to, to the height of more than. 

 20 feet above the surface of the turbary deposits, where it forms a 

 broad swampy delta. We dug here in several localities and found 

 invariably in the lower portion of the peat, large stems of trees mostly 

 white pine, so soft that the spade cut easily through the wood, together 

 writh Moa-bones, but although the latter in not a single case were rolled, 

 those of a complete or even nearly complete bird were never found 

 lying together. It is thus clear that the bodies of the birds which, 

 perished here in crossing were only partly retained, partial decomposi- 

 tion having freed some of the bones, which either were taken lower 

 down the Creek, or found a resting place in the lagoon. 



"Where the small water-course enters the valley there was sometimes 

 quite a network of timber, often of very large size, lying on the bottom. 

 Covered by these trees or retained amongst them the dinornithic 

 remains were of frequent occurrence. In some few cases the three 

 principal leg bones with the pelvis and one or two dorsal vertebrae 

 were found together in their natural position, the great mass consisted 

 however of odd bones belonging to all known species, and to 

 individuals of all sizes from the chick to the aged bird, brought there 



