Hill. — The Moa — Legendary, Historical, and Geological. 335 



him by^the Maori teachers and the Rev. William Williams, both being 

 obtained in the year 1839. (Vide map.) 



The interval that elapsed between the reading of Owen's first and 

 second papers was an active one in New Zealand in the way of collecting 

 bones. Colenso paid a second visit to the East Coast in the summer of 

 1841-42 (vide map). He started from the Bay of Islands on Friday, the 19th 

 November, on board a little vessel bound for Poverty Bay. He, however, 

 landed at Wharekahike (now known as Hicks Bay), between Cape Run- 

 away and the East Cape. He continued his journey southward to Rangi- 

 tukia, a large Native settlement of the Ngatiporou Tribe on the left bank 

 of the Waiapu River. Here he obtained " several fossil bones of the moa " 

 (five femora, one tibia, and one undetermined).* These were the first moa- 

 bones actually collected by Mr. Colenso. He continued his journey south- 

 ward along the coast to Poverty Bay, where he met the Rev. William 

 Williams, now made Archdeacon, and who had gone to reside at Turanga 

 (Gisborne) at the beginning of 1841. The Archdeacon had a number of 

 moa-bones which had been obtained from the Natives. These had been 

 collected with the intention of sending to Professor Buckland, at Oxford. 

 Colenso statesf that he gave some of the bones collected by himself to the 

 Archdeacon. It is reasonable to suppose that mutual exchanges were made 

 at this time. Colenso went inland from Poverty Bay, following the present 

 inland Gisborne-Wairoa Road as far as Te Reinga Falls in the Hangaroa 

 River (vide map). His inquiries for moa-bones were frequent as he passed 

 round the famous Whakapunake headland of limestone, where, according 

 to tradition, the moa still lived in a cave ! (Vide map.) He was told just 

 what Maoris always tell whenever they are ignorant — that the information 

 he sought of the moa would be obtained from some other named person 

 in another locality. Interest, however, was aroused by his inquiries for 

 bones, and observation was quickened when it was known that money 

 would be given by the missionary living at Turanga to those who should 

 find bones and take them to him. Colenso tells us that many bones were 

 taken to the Archdeacon, but that he himself could not obtain any in- 

 formation other than legendary about the moa, which the Natives near 

 Whakapunake now said lived in the Wai-iti Mountains ! Colenso undoubtedly 

 made a brave effort at this time to discover facts concerning the moa as 

 known to the Maoris, but his efforts were unsuccessful. The facts gleaned 

 along the coast during his progress to Poverty Bay, and the legends common 

 to the East Coast district, were not increased during his remarkable journey 

 through the heart of the North Island. 



During the year 1842 Archdeacon Williams sent a collection of bones to 

 Professor Buckland, at Oxford. Some of these bones consisted of a pair of 

 femora collected by Colenso at the Waiapu River, near Rangitukia, where, 

 as already stated, Colenso obtained five femora, one tibia, and one bone 

 undetermined. On returning to the Bay of Islands Colenso also set about 

 making up a collection of moa-bones to send to his friend Sir W. J. Hooker 

 for Professor Owen, and at the same time he wrote an account of his views 

 on the moa, and a monograph on some New Zealand ferns. The former 

 he sent to the editor of the " Tasmanian Journal of Science," and the latter 

 to Sir W. J. Hooker. Colenso's paper on the moa was sent to the editor 



* " Memoranda of an Excursion in New Zealand." " Tasmanian Journal," vol. 4, 

 p. 220. 



t Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 12, p. 70. 



