THE GEOLOGY OE NELSON. 
101 
contributions from Messrs. Wells, Haycock, and Ogg, and a 
nearly perfect skeleton of Palapterix inrjens presented by the 
Nelson Museum to the Imperial Geological Institution of 
Vienna. 
These gigantic birds belong to an era prior to the human 
race, to a post-tertiary period. And it is a remarkably incom¬ 
prehensible fact of the creation, that whilst at the very same 
period in the old world, elephants, rhinoceroses, hippopotami 
in South America, gigantic sloths and armadillos ; in Australia, 
gigantic kangaroos, wombats, and dasyures were living; the 
colossal forms of animal life were represented in New Zealand 
by gigantic birds, who walked the shores then untrod by the 
foot of any quadruped. 
A characteristic of the tertiary formation of the Takaka 
Valley is large masses of fossiliferous limestone, beginning at 
the Tata Islands, and extending far up the valley. Under the 
limestone lies the Motupipi brown coal formation, which can 
be traced up the valley as far as Mr. Sheet’s. I am indebted 
to Mr. James Burnett for carefully drawn and instructive 
plans and sections of the Motupipi working, which at once 
placed before me the character of the coal-field and the succes¬ 
sion of the strataA I need not here repeat what I have so 
~P 
C/2 
c3 
O 
I - 
Section of Strata at Motupipi, Massacre Bay. 
No. I Shaft. 
Surface Clay 
COtlil .a. ... .6. ... ... ... C*. 
Slldlc ... a a a ... ... .a. . a . .a* 
ft. ill. 
1 9 
2 0 
Coal 
ft. in. 
2 4 j 
Band of Shale 0 5 1 Working Seam 
2 4 ) 
r 
X 
5 
o . 
. 4 ^ I—< 
Cl. 
Bored 1 ft. further in shale ... 
1 
Coal 
Shale of a sandy nature ... ... ... ... .. 3 o 
(jml 1 
Vy \J tvJ. • ■ • . • . V • a ••• a • • a • a • a • J. f " 
Soft Sandstone, composed of very rough sand, like crushed 
quartz, with thin beds of shale ; this stone falls away to 
loose sand under the pick, hut stands very well in the shaft 7 0 
Shale (pretty good roof) ... ... ... ... ... 2 0 
Coal, with a great deal of water, sunk 2 ft. 7 in., and bored 
2 ft. more to the bottom of this seam 
4 7 
V 
27 1 
1 0 
28 1 
