Where nothing is to be seen now but a sandy desert, there, 
it is said, stood generations ago a Maori village with luxuriant 
Kumara plantations. The natives tell of an extraordinarily high 
tide, and of a violent hurricane, that have wrought such changes, 
and turned the river from its bed. Up to this day , a broad 
alluvial plain, strewn with fragments of pumice stone, and a lag- 
oon in the middle thereof, called Totomoaku, a favourite resort of 
wild ducks, indicate the river-bed of old at the foot of the steep, 
rocky South Head. 
Section along the Waikato South head. 
1. Strata with Belemnites. 2. Tertiary sand-stemo. 3. Sand-hills. 
To the geologist, the South Head is a locality of considerable 
interest. Where the sand-hills cease , there a steep , rocky coast 
commences, extending towards Okariha Point, and washed by the 
surge at high tide. At neap tide, a narrow strip of sand-beach is 
laid dry, which presents a convenient path nearly as far as Oka- 
riha Point. The rocks consist of marl and sandstone, the strata 
being piled one above the other with extraordinary regularity like 
the leaves of a book, and dipping to the West at an angle of 35 de- 
grees. The sandy strata contain indistinct fossil plants and particles 
of coal; the marls arc streaked with wlute veins of calcareous spar, 
and interspersed with iron pyrites. It was here, that I discovered 
the first Belemnites upon New Zealand. Those Belemnites are found 
of various sizes; the largest being finger’s length and finger’s thick- 
ness. They are all distinguished by a deep furrow, and are ex- 
cellent representatives of the family of Oanaliculati (d’Orbigny). 1 
Besides Belemnites there are found in the same strata Aucella pli- 
cata, Zitt. , Placunopsis striatula , Zitt. , and other small Bivalves. 
1 The same species, only in a smaller variety, I found afterwards on Kawhia 
Harbour. Nearest related to the New Zealand species is the Belemnites semicanalicu- 
latus of the lower chalk. 
