Correspondence.

Lyttelton Times, Volume IX, Issue 567, 10 April 1858, Page 5

Correspondence.

To the Editor of the Tjyttelton Times. Sib,—-As the geology of this island is doubtless interesting to your readers, I send you the principal points of interest with regard to the Waipara district as seen by Mr. Marchant and myself a few weeks ago. Our route lay nearly N.N.W., starting from the Waipara Station, crossing Mount Brown, and then ascending the bed of the river during which,we passed over the following strata: —40 feet of gravel or shingle ; 200 feet of new sandstone, containing marine shells of the present date; 500 feet of chalk; 200 feet of blue clay and 300 feet of old sandstone, containing fossil remains of the Moa and small bivalve shells, with beds of oyster and mussel shells ; 10 feet of shale or clay slate interspersed with coal, containing vegetable remains ; the whole vesting on a base of mountain limestone, the thickness of which we could not determine. Above Mount Brown the Waipara runs in a deep thickly wooded gorge. The sandstone cliffa rise perpendicularly 400 feet on either side, presenting a layer of large nodes near the surface, many 8 feet in diameter, formed of harder sandstone than the surrounding rock. Many of these masses that have fallen into the bed of the torrent are rich in the fossil remains of the Moa. ; On the surface are di&tinctly to he .traced the feathers of the bird, and on breaking into one we exposed the whole of the bones constituting the pelvis and thorax, many of the vertebrw of the neck, with the proximal ends of the femur and humerus. Amongst these remains were many feathers irregularly disposed, of various sizes ; the largest measured f-ths of an inch in diameter at the. quill, two feet six inches in length and four inches across the blade. From the ease with which sandstone breaks in all directions it was impossible to obtain a perfect specimen. Together with the Moa bones were numerous small bivalves, likewise fossil. At the lower portion of this old sandstone lie the beds of fossil oyster and mussel shells. Taking into consideration the number and thickness of the superincumbent strata there is reason to believe that the Moa existed in these

Islands 3000 or 4000 years ago, at which period were extensive tidal sandllats, abounding in shellfish; and that its size and length of leg adapted it for wading. ; I am, sir, Yours obediently, HENRY NELSON, M.D.