Notice of the Remains of the Dinornis and other Birds, and of Fossils and Rock-specimens, recently collected by Mr. Walter Mantell in the Middle Island of New Zealand; with Additional Notes on the Northern Island

Abstract

T he remoteness of New Zealand, and the long period required for the transmission of specimens to England, together with the very limited information we at present possess of the geology and palæontology of that interesting antipodean colony, impart a certain degree of importance to any accession of knowledge, however slight, relating to the physical structure, and the ancient fauna and flora of those distant islands. These considerations induce me to submit to the Society the following remarks on a large collection of the bones of several species of Dinornis and other birds, of rock-specimens, and of fossil shells, corals, and infusoria, received a short time since from my eldest son, Mr. Walter Mantell, of Wellington; and although the information afforded by this collection respecting the geological structure of the country is but scanty, I would fain hope that this brief communication will not be deemed an uninteresting supplement to the memoir on the Fossil Birds of New Zealand, which I had the honour to lay before the Geological Society in 1848. The specimens were accompanied by numerous sketches of the country, and a copy of the official report on the colonial capabilities of the eastern coast of the Middle Island, from Kaiapoi to Akaroa in Banks' Peninsula, and thence to the Scotch settlement at Otago, a distance of about 260 miles, made during my son's exploration of that tract in 1848, as Government Commissioner for the final settlement of native claims. Such parts of this report as throw light on