84 Rev. W. Colenso on some enormous Fossil Bones 



forward with no small degree of interest to the obtaining at least 

 some Moa relics in this locality; in this however I was dis- 

 appointed. At the close of the second clay's travel we arrived 

 at " Te Reinga" (a village situated at the foot of the mountain), 

 where, as opportunity offered, I inquired of the natives relative 

 to the Moa. In reply to my reiterated queries, they said that 

 he lived there in the mountain, although they had never seen 

 him, but that the Moa bones were very commonly found after 

 floods occasioned by heavy rains, when they would be washed 

 up on the banks of gravel in the sides of the rivers and exposed 

 to their view ; still they had not any at that time by them. I 

 offered large rewards for any that should be found hereafter, and 

 which were to be taken to Mr. Williams at Poverty Bay. Here, 

 as at Waiapu, no one person could be found who possessed the 

 hardihood positively to assert that he had seen the Moa, although 

 this neighbourhood had ever been the dwelling-place of that 

 tribe. The mountain, too, it appeared was by no means unknown 

 to them ; for, during a war between themselves and the Urewera 

 tribe a few years ago, they had fled for refuge to their stronghold 

 on the top of Wakapunake, where they had lived for some time, 

 and where many of their relatives eventually fell into the hands 

 of the enemy, who starved them into a surrender and took the 

 place. Here then was still further proof (if proof was wanting), 

 that no such colossal animal could possibly at this time be exist- 

 ing in this place. The spot, however, was well-chosen for the 

 fiction of such a creature's residence : a huge, table-topped and 

 lofty mountain, covered with primaeval forests of gloomy pines ; 

 its brow singularly adorned with a horizontal stratum of whitish 

 sandstone, which ran continuously and precipitously for more 

 than two miles. At the base of the mountain ran the river 

 Wangaroa, down which we paddled in canoes for some distance. 

 This river is a branch of the Wairoa river, which disembogues 

 into Hawkes' Bay. 



These natives further informed me that a Moa resided at a 

 certain high mountain in Te 'Waiti district, nearly five days' 

 journey into the interior, in a N.W. direction from the place 

 where we now were, and that there I should find people who 

 had actually seen the animal. If I was little inclined to believe 

 in the story of its existence before, I was much less inclined to 

 do so now ; however, as my route lay that way, I determined to 

 make every possible inquiry after it. 



Fifteen days after this I arrived at Te 'Waiti, the principal 

 village of that district and not far from the residence of the 

 second Moa. Here however, as before, the people had never 

 seen a Moa, although they had always heard of, and invariably 

 believed in, the existence of such a creature at that place. They, 



