30 Transactions. — Zoology. 



of which are found in the Quaternary deposits of Europe ; and 

 he affirmed that if the moa had outlived these times, geologi- 

 cally different from ours, it had not been long in becoming 

 extinct. ( i7 ) 



One can see that Dr. Haast seemed to admit not only the 

 analogy of the glacial phenomena operating alike in New 

 Zealand and in Europe, but also their contemporaneity. But 

 this is a question of pure geology, which is beyond my capa- 

 city. Nevertheless, if we accept these two propositions as 

 true, and if we argue by analogy, we might make serious 

 objections as to the conclusions which the New Zealand 

 scientist draws with regard to the remote extinction of the 

 moa. 



It is quite true that these large mammals spoken of by 

 Dr. Haast no longer exist, and are only known to us by their 

 remains. But beside them lived other species, which have 

 survived and are still existing. The monks of St. Gall still 

 ate the urus in the fifteenth century ; the reindeer, in the time 

 of Pallas, descended in the depth of winter as far as the 

 borders of the Caspian Sea ; the auroch and the elk are still 

 to be found in Poland ; the chamois, the wild goat, and the 

 dormouse still survive around us. Why, therefore, should all 

 the different species of moa have been condemned to perish 

 with the geological period which saw them appear ? 



Dr. Haast would no doubt reply that the European 

 mammals above mentioned, and others which it is unnecessary 

 to enumerate, have generally emigrated either in latitude or in 

 altitude. But, without even making the action of man interfere, 

 this change of habit might be caused by a radical change of 

 climate. The latter, insular in the glacial times, had become 

 continental. In New Zealand it was not so. Whatever may 

 have been the upheaval or depression of the land,( 48 ) it has 

 remained isolated in the midst of the ocean, and the climate 

 has not varied, at any rate in the lower levels, except 

 within very prescribed limits. Dr. Haast himself, in setting 

 forth other facts besides those which I have indicated, 

 urges similar views, and shows very clearly how in this large 

 island the extension of glaciers by no means involves the 



(47.) Loc. cit., p. 75. 



(4S.) The Transactions contain several memoirs giving an account of 

 the glacial phenomena which occurred in New Zealand. I will merely 

 mention those of Messrs. Travers and Dobson, who, in expressing their 

 own views, have recapitulated those of their colleagues. " Notes on Dr. 

 Haast's supposed Pleistocene Glaciation of New Zealand," by W. T. L. 

 Travers (Transactions, vol. vii., p. 409). " On the Date of the Glacial 

 Period," by A. Dudley Dobson (id., p. 440). But the work which ought 

 especially to be consulted on this question is that of Dr. Haast on the 

 geology of the Provinces of Canterbury aud Westland. 



