Hill. — The Moa — Legendary, Historical, and Geological. 347 



In the case of deposits of moa-bones in. swamp areas that were obtained 

 at Te Aute, and described by the late Mr. A. Hamilton, F.G.S., Director 

 of the Dominion Museum,* it is necessary to understand the character of 

 the country in the vicinity. The long north-east -south-west valley ex- 

 tending from Waipukurau to Pakipaki runs between two ranges of hills, 

 the range on the right (in the direction of Hastings) being made up of older 

 Pliocene and Miocene beds, and that on the left of Miocene and Cretaceo- 

 tertiary marls. These separate ranges were once a part of the same series, 

 but during 'the times of volcanic activity which closed the Pleistocene 

 period there was a violent uplift along the present valley, followed by a 

 subsidence, and the lake and lakelets are the remains of the changes that 

 then took place. Since then the Heretaunga Plain has been rebuilt, the 

 rivers Tukituki and Waipawa have made a course along a subsiding frac- 

 ture from Waipukurau, by way of Patangata, and down the valley behind 

 Havelock, into the Heretaunga Plain. All the hill country in the vicinity 

 of the ranges named appears to have been inhabited by numerous moas at 

 the time of the volcanic period, when earthquakes were common and sur- 

 face changes frequent. The moas were either suddenly destroyed at this 

 time or disappeared from the East Coast district. They were not destroyed 

 by man or any natural enemy, as otherwise their bones could never have 

 accumulated without injury in an area of limited extent and of a particular 

 type. The abundance of bones uninjured and undisturbed shows that the 

 animals must have died suddenly, and were uninjured by man or beast. 

 Further, they were either drowned or destroyed in some way where their 

 bodies were found, or in close proximity. Subsequently their bodies were 

 washed from the hill country into the depressed area by great floods follow- 

 ing the volcanic and earthquake disturbances. Thus the moa-bone accumu- 

 lations in the Te Aute Swamp, as described by Mr. Hamilton, might easily 

 have been brought down from the surrounding hills by heavy floods follow- 

 ing a period of great volcanic activity and earth-movements, when vege- 

 tation was destroyed either by falling ashes or by poisonous exhalations 

 from the ground such as were experienced at St. Pierre in the West Indies 

 and at Messina in Sicily in times of intense earth-movements. 



Mr. Hamilton, in his interesting account, f offers the hypothesis that the 

 spot where the vast accumulations of bones were obtained " was a narrow 

 crossing-place in a swampy forest " ; but the discovery of other bones in 

 a spot nearly two miles from the original find, and at the foot of a spur, 

 leads to the conclusion that the birds' w r ere fleeing when overtaken by some 

 sudden catastrophe. 



The section exposed in the Te Aute Swamp, where Mr. Hamilton made 

 his first find of moa-bones, was in " the cutting of a drain about 15 ft. 

 deep, of which from 8 ft. to 10 ft. was of silt deposit (pumice and washings 

 from the Cretaceous rocks of the district)." These facts all go to suggest 

 volcanic anel earthquake disturbances when the moas were living ; but the 

 fact that the moa-bones are found associated with Cnemiornis (a great 

 extinct goose), with Harpagornis (a great extinct eagle), and with Notomis 

 (the gigantic rail), as Mr. Hamilton points out, provides additional support 

 to the theory that all these birds were destroyed suddenly when assembled 

 together in the vicinity of the rifts where their bones are found. 



And does not the legendary history of the Maori along the East Coast 

 offer a suggestion and an interpretation to the geologist who studies the 



* Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 21, p. 311. 

 f Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 21, p. 316. 



