Overview
Tues. Decr. 24
Clif + I shore Father's rams doing 11 + 15 respectively. After dinner took Beauty for a long drive to exercise her ready for going to beach on Boxing Day. Drove to Koputaroa via Tavistock Road, thence to Levin via "Kilsbys' + main Foxton Road. The cross bedding, or rather lamination, of the sandstone is beautifully shown in a cutting on Tavistock Road + in a cutting just north of junction of Tavistock + Koputaroa Roads. Beyond Koputaroa as far as Davies homestead is a sandstone landscape containing ponds near the former place. The origin of three hollows is not clear. Two or three levels of the sandstone formation may be distinguished - they usually grade into each other, but here + there are divided by steep faces as on the Koputaroa Stream valley near McDonald Road. Beyond Davies' the sandstone ends abruptly in a line of low cliffs, beyond which there is a broad flat, in part swampy, which extends to the inner margin of the dune
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belt. It is evident the flat marks the former course of the Manawatu River which then curved further south than at present, in fact about as far as the Maori church near the main road at Poroutwhio [Poroutawhao], pursuing a meandering course on the flat mentioned above + clipping of the edge of the sandstaone formation. At Porotawhio [sic] the sandstone formation extends westward past the settlement + runs under the dunes of blown sand, showing that the course of the Manawatu never extended as far south as this. On "Kilsby's" Road the inner margin of the dune-belt is well-defined, but futher west there are large sand-flats with very low dune-ridges (at right angles to coast-line) at intervals, + at junction with Levin-Foxton Road these practically disappear. Prominent dune-ridges lie between adjourning sand-flats on which lie the tiny ridges. In one palce on Levin-Foxton road I noted laminated blown sand (alternate laminae of black + grey) but the lamination
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was much less continuous than in the sandstone formation. Between Porotawhio [sic] Church + Heather;a the sandstone formation is very clayey due either (1) to weathering or (2) to actual finer texture, ie variation of the subaqueaous deposits seawards. Near McDonald's homestead the sandstone formation exhibitions a topography similar to that described as occurring along part of "Kilsby's" Road, viz, low east + weat riedges on a general flat surface. This however is probably due to the fact that in the past the darinage lines ran east to west in this place. Near Heatherlea cross-roads there seem to be occasional riny dune-ridges lying on the surface of the sandstone, + in some of the road cuttings ripple-mark is noticeable. On the other hand the rippled material seems to have some of the characteristics of the sandstone viz, stained with iron-oxide, coherence + lamination. Further detached examination is necessary. Arrived in Levin 2 1/2 hours after leaving Woodside. Town
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crowded with people in to celebrate Xmas eve. After tea Maud, Nancy, Clyde Gertie + I drove in. Put Clyde in Chelsyn Rise car + had a good time, several suppers +c +c.
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[High resolution image of whole page is available by scrolling through images attached to George Leslie Adkin personal diary, May 1917-February 1919