270 Dr A. Thomson on the Moa Caves of New Zealand. 



was Sunday, and one of our party went to prayers with the 

 natives. In the evening our tent was filled with visitors, 

 and early on Monday morning our party started for Manea, 

 where we breakfasted. 



General Description of the Country in which, the Caves are 

 found. — On the western coast of the north island of New Zea- 

 land, between the Mokau river and Taranaki, on the south, 

 Kawhia on the north, and extending inland with occasional 

 breaks to the Waipa river, there is an extensive district, 

 chiefly composed of marine limestone. The formation is 

 found in some parts on a level with the sea, and in other 

 parts it has been elevated by volcanic action into mountain 

 ranges and districts upwards of a thousand feet above the 

 oceanic level. The rock occurs in strata. The stratifica- 

 tion is sometimes twisted and broken, with bold cliffs and 

 chasms of calcareous rock, presenting a highly picturesque 

 effect, seen on passing along the path from the "Waipa river to 

 Parianiwaniwa. I could not ascertain the nature of the rocks 

 upon which the limestone rests, but above it, in many places, 

 there is nothing but alluvial deposits of earth, clay, sand, 

 &c. At the bottom of the valleys the quantity of this aqueous 

 deposit is very considerable ; but occasionally on the slopes 

 and sides of the hills, the limestone crops out in well-marked 

 strata, presenting to the eye at a little distance the appear- 

 ance of an old Gothic castle in ruins, or an ancient grave- 

 yard. With these exceptions, the hills present a smooth and 

 rounded form, very unlike the volcanic hills in the neigh- 

 bourhood. The soil on this limestone formation is covered 

 with ferns, and occasionally large dense forests of trees. There 

 are numerous caves, and grottoes, and cells, all over the 

 district. Streams of water are seen to disappear between 

 limestone rocks, and suddenly to reappear ; fissures are found 

 in which no erosions from water can be traced ; but in all 

 the caves and cells that I examined there was evidence of a 

 rent, and also of watery erosion. These caverns in the 

 earth have been long known to the New Zealanders in this 

 part of the country ; and near Kawhia there is a cave which 

 was the burial-place of the Ngatitoas, the tribe of the great 

 Rauparaha. Dieffenbach considers that the limestone forma- 

 tion belongs to the tertiary series. 



