EMBALMED IN KAURI GUM.

Shannon News, 6 December 1929, Page 2

EMBALMED IN KAURI GUM.

BIRD’S NEST AND NINE EGGS,

Several curious discoveries of objects preserved in kauri gum and lime siniter have been made by Mr George Henry, of Tangawahine, in bush country about twenty miles inland from Kerikeri, Bay of Islands (says the “New Zealand Herald”). The most remarkable of the specimens is a bird’s nest containing nine eggs and completely enclosed in a layer of kauri gum. The eggs, with a few leaves, are plainly visible in the bottom of the nest. Above them the gum has formed a neat covering, and it has run oyer the outer part of the nest congealing on to the leaves and twigs used in its construction. When found the whole was resting on a limy deposit, and in order to remove it Mr Ilcnry to chip the base away. A' strange feature is that the gum has a blazed appearance, somewhat inconsistent with gum deposits in their raw state. Fragments of leaves, miniature kauri cones, stems, and other plant forms have been replaced by calcareous sinter, in another case. The small tangled mass is entirely covered by a cpating of shining gum, the outlines of the leaves, and (other things being .retained clearl/. Professor J. A. Bartrum, professor of geology at Auckland University College, jvho examined this particular specimen, said the sinter had probably been formed from some lime spring, as known to exist in the district. Much interest attached to the compllote covering of .gum. - It was not fossilised, and for that reason it was difficult to conceive how it could have dropped from trees and covered the lump of sinter without attaching surrounding objects to the mass. It seemed as though the specimen had been coated with gum by an earlier discoverer and then left to be found again. This, conclusion was not definite, but the shininess of the gum coating was a strange feature not usually found in gum droppings.