THE GEOLOGY OF AUCKLAND. 
The Limestone Formation attains its greatest thickness (from 
400 to 500 feet) in the Upper Waipa and MoJcau district, 
between the iiangitoto range and the West Coast. It has in 
this country many remarkable features. 
Ho one can enter without admiration the Stalactite Caves of 
Tana-uri-uri at Hangatiki, and of Parianeicancica near the 
sources of the Waipa—the former haunts of the gigantic Moa, 
I went into those caves in the hope of meeting with a rich 
harvest of Moa skeletons, but I was sadly disappointed, those 
who had been before me in the days of Moa enthusiasm having 
carried off every vestige of a bone. Great, however, was my 
labour, and not little my satisfaction, in dragging out the 
head-less and leg-less skeleton of a Moa from beneath the dust 
and filth of an old raupo hut ! The Maoris, seeing the greedi¬ 
ness with which the “pakehas” hunted after old Moa bones, 
have long since carefully collected all they could find, and 
deposited them in some safe hiding-place—waiting for the oppor¬ 
tunity of exchanging them for pieces of gold and silver, showing 
thus how well they have learned the lesson taught them by the 
example of the “pakelia.” 
The subterranean passages of the rivers in the Peh iope an d Mairoa 
district are highly characteristic of the limestone formation. 
The limestone rocks, fissured and channeled, are penetrated by 
the water, and the streams run below the limestone upon the 
surface of the argillaceous strata, which I have before mentioned 
as underlying the limestone. This also explains the scarcity of 
water on the limestone plateau which divides the sources of the 
Waipa and Mokau rivers. The plateau is covered with a 
splendid growth of grass, and would form an excellent cattle 
run but for the deep funnel-shaped holes which everywhere 
abound. The Natives call them “ tomoP They are similar to 
the holes which occur in the limestone downs in England, and 
on the Karst mountains on the shores of the Adriatic Gulf, where 
they are called a dolinesP 
The third and uppermost stratum of the older tertiary 
formation consists of beds of fine fossiliferous sandstone, in 
which quarries of good building stone may be found. There 
are whole ranges parallel to the primary mountains which seem 
to consist of this sandstone. I will mention only the Tapui - 
