De Quatrefages. — On Moas and Moa-hunters. 31 



existence of a climate much more rigorous than that of 

 to-day. ( 49 ) The general conditions of existence remaining 

 the same, what reason can the New Zealand palaeontologist 

 have for considering the extinction of all the moas a 

 necessity? 



In all his writings published up to this date which have 

 come to my knowledge, Dr. Haast maintains the general 

 opinions we indicated above. ( w ) It appears that they have 

 for him the value of so many axioms involving a certainty, 

 and thus the positive or negative facts have value in his eyes 

 only so far as they accord with his theory. If one mentions 

 to him skeletons more or less complete, found on the surface 

 beside a little heap of moa-stones, which seem to indi- 

 cate that the bird died there and was never buried, he 

 declares himself unable to comprehend that these bones 

 have resisted the action of atmospheric agents during hun- 

 dreds if not thousands of years. ( a ) If one speaks to 

 him of the traditions preserved by the natives relating to 

 the existence of the moas — their external characters, their 

 manner of life, and the means employed in killing them — 

 he replies that the most civilised Europeans have no tradi- 

 tions connected with the mammoth and rhinoceros ; and that 

 an inferior race, which only reached a state similar to that of 

 our Neolithic people, cannot have retained any recollection of 

 a period of such remote antiquity. ( V2 ) He adds that eminent 

 men have looked in vain for traditions' of the class he refers 

 to.( 53 ) He, like Mr. Colenso, dwells on the fables which are 

 in New Zealand, as in every other country, mixed up with the 

 true history in the memory of the people. ( 54 ) He connects 

 what is said about the moas with vague memories relating to 

 the cassowary which had been brought by the Maoris from 

 their first home,( 55 ) and also to information furnished by 



(49.) hoc. cit., p. 72. 



(50.) Independently of the address quoted above, Haast published. 

 in the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute the following memoirs 

 on the same subject : — Vol. iv., 1S72 : " Additional Notes," p. 90 ; " Third 

 Paper on Moas and Moa-hunters," p. 94, pi. vii. Vol. vii., 1S75 : 

 " Researches and Excavations carried on in and near the Moa-bone Point 

 Cave, Sumner Road, in the Year 1872," p. 54 ; " Notes on an Ancient 

 Native Burial-place near the Moa-bone Point Cave, Sumner," p. 86, pis. iii. 

 and iv. ; " Notes on the Moa-hunters' Encampment at Shag Point, 

 Otago," p. 91 ; "Results of Excavations and Researches in and near the 

 Moa-bone Point Cave, Sumner Road " (postscript), p. 52S. Haast main- 

 tained, moreover, his theory, and the conclusions which he draws from it, 

 in his book entitled " Geology," &c, 1 vol. in 8vo, 1879. 



(51.) Address, p. 71. 



(52.) Address, p. 75. 



(53.) P. 70, and following. 



(54.) P. 75. 



(55.) P. 77. 



