98 LE NATURALISTE 'CANADIEN 



Comme le texte du New York Fost, contient nombre de 

 termes techniques, je demanderai au Naturaliste canadien 

 de vouloir bien donner le texte même de l'écrit annonçant l'é- 

 trange trouvaille. ( l ) 



J.-M. LeMoine. 



THE SEARCH FOR THE EPYORMS 



(New York «Post») 



The récent tinding of an egg oi' the great epyornis, Hoating 

 about in St. Augustine Bay, on the southwest coust of 

 Madagascar, has induced a party of Germans, headed by 

 Gottlieb Adolf Krause, the German explorer, to undertake 

 an exploration of the remote interior of Madagascar in search 

 of possible living spécimens of this great bird of the post- 

 pliocene period of the world's history. The egg may hâve come 

 down with the fioods from the unexplored interior of the island, 

 or niay hâve been buried for centuries in the sand, preserved 

 by souie curions freak of nature, and then carried to sea. 

 Which of thèse théories is the pvoper one. Professer Krause 

 and his party will try to discover. According to geologists, at 

 one time Madagascar and the islands east of Africa wei-e one, 

 but later the land snbsided and left the islands separated by a 

 strait, and since that time the islands hâve developed species 

 to themselves. The chmatic changes which ensued are believed 

 by some to hâve externiinated the epyornis. But others décla- 

 re that, as the country chfuiged, the gigantic bird retired dee- 

 per and deeper into the wilderness, where it has remained for 

 centuries without molestation, uiiless it has been annihilated 

 by some unknown savage tribe in the interior, and will be 

 found Hiere to-day somewhere between the désert and the 

 Aukarah ^lountains. The tinding of tlie ^gg in St. Augustine 



(1) J'our iijpoiidn- au désir de notre collaborateur Sir Janies-M. Le.Moiiie, iiou.s 

 publions volontiers le te.xte anglais de l'article i^u'il a bien voulu nou.s communi- 

 quer. Mais nous on donnons au.ssi la tmduction, on faveur de ceux de no.s lecteur.s 

 qui ignorent l'anglais. Ri':r». 



