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have received a deposit of such comminuted materials, whereby a cast may be taken 
of the mould previously made, and such mould be preserved, 
Or, the impressions made at low tide may receive before the turn sand drifted by the 
wind, and that in such quantity as to preserve the impression from being broken up by 
the eddyings of the returning tide, The comminuted materials of the sea-bed will then 
be deposited upon the drift-sand blown into the foot-prints during the ebb; and such 
layer of sand will be interposed between the strata forming the sea-bed, such strata 
varying in thickness according to the intervals between the atmospheric movements 
which have spread the sand over the bed. In due course of time this stratified sea-bed 
acquires the consistency of rock, as in the case of the New Red Sandstone of Cheshire 
and Connecticut. 
The stratified deposits which have received and retained impressions of a Dinornis at 
‘Turanganui are described ‘as a portion of rock about 14 feet in length, and about 5 
feet in width” +; but further on the Archdeacon describes “ the rock ” as being ‘* very 
soft, containing a large proportion of fine pumiceous sand”*. ‘Soon after the impres- 
sions were made a quantity of sand, much coarser than that which enters into the com- 
position of the rock, must have been drifted over it by the wind, filling up all the foot- 
prints, and covering the whole surface to a moderate depth; the general thickness of the 
layer, after having been compressed by subsequent deposits, is about five eighths of an 
inch, That this must have happened soon after the impressions were made, and before 
the mud had become quite dry, is indicated by the way in which this coarser sand is 
imbedded in the bottom of the impressions ”*. 
The tract of impressed ‘rock’ is just below high-water mark. “ Subsequent deposits 
of [fluviatile] silt have taken place, covering that in which the impressions are found 
to the depth of about 2 feet.” ‘*Overlying the whole is a layer of sand, gravel, shells, 
and soil to the depth of 4 feet” 4. 
The account given by the Hon. Mr. Gillies is essentially in accordance with that by 
Archdeacon Williams. The height of the land above the (present) high-water mark 
is about 5 feet. This is composed of sandy alluvium containing shelly layers of 
recent species. Below this occur successive strata of imperfectly solidified pumiceous 
sandy mudstones, or muddy pumiceous sandstones, each from four to six inches thick, 
but separated from each other by a thin layer of from a quarter to half an inch thick of 
pure coarse sand. ‘These foot-marks are found on about the fourth or fifth layer 
below the alluvial [gu. zolian] deposit above referred to, and are protected from the 
superincumbent layer by this thin layer of pure sand. These layers have a dip of about 
six degrees to the southward, and the foot-marks were found about 2 feet 6 inches 
below the level of the alluvial deposit above, the rock, however, dipping eastward to 
about ten degrees ” », 
* Williams, loc, cit. p. 124. * Ib. ib. p. 125. * Tb. ib, ‘ Tb. ib. * Tom, cit. p. 127. 
