24 
work that precise locality, inasmuch as the diamonds wherever 
found have been by natural operations widely distributed, and, 
as it were, washed out of their birth-place, and, as Mr. Rupert 
Jones observes, it would in all probability be more remunera¬ 
tive, to obtain a clear notion of the stratigraphical structure of 
the whole country (a matter which has yet to be worked out) 
and of its geological history. Then w’ould be learnt the 
place of origin, the mode of transport, the sites of deposit, and, 
it might be, the deposit of the stone, and hence might be dis¬ 
covered the laws which had regulated its deposition. 
Dec. 5th. —Mr. W. Pumphrey presented, on behalf of Mr. 
Allis, a photograph of the skeletons of several Dinornidw, and, 
on his part, read the subjoined paper on the subject of these 
very remarkable birds :—In presenting this photograph to the 
Society, I shall beg to remark that, when speaking of the bones 
of our dinornis, then on the table before us, in June, 1864, Ave 
stated that we had only had an opportunity of seeing one figure 
of the skeleton of the dinornis, which had only two pair of 
sternal ribs, whereas our bird had evidently three pair. On 
first looking at the photograph on the table, of the skeletons in 
the Canterbury Museum, we at once saw that they all possessed 
only two pair of sternal ribs, and we then inferred that T)r. 
Haast, like ourselves, had only seen Professor Owen’s first pub¬ 
lished figure, and in writing to Dr. Haast we found that we 
were right in that opinion. We also saw that those skeletons 
were all deficient, in wanting the first pair of dorsal ribs, and the 
scapula coracoid. In these skeletons the last ribs are articulated 
into the sacral vertebrae, which are all exposed to sight. In our 
specimen, in which the bones were never separated, the sacrum 
entirely conceals the sacral vertebrae ; and of the three last pair 
of ribs the first is articulated to the lower surface of the sacrum, 
and the two last pair are anchylosed to the bone, and form part 
of it. I therefore wrote to Dr. Haast, in a friendly letter, con¬ 
gratulating him on procuring so many hones,/and on his skill 
in mounting them, at the same time pointing out to him 
where they were deficient, which we ^vcre able to do from the 
circumstance that our bones were so perfect, and, when found, 
