Moas and Moa-Jmnters. 137 



bj Hochstetter. Here very distinct layers, separated by a bed 

 of stalagmite, contained different species. At the top was 

 Meionornis didiformis, at the bottom Palapteryx elephantopus. 

 The bones of the former seemed to be still fresh, those of the 

 latter were semi-fossilized. This diversity of aspect corre- 

 sponded with differences of chemical composition, itself con- 

 nected with more or less advanced alteration. The quantity 

 of organic matter found in the bones of Moas which have 

 been analyzed has proved very variable. It is sometimes 

 only 10 per cent. ; but sometimes, also, it rises to 30 per cent. 

 — a proportion almost exactly the same as is met with in 

 fresh bones of the ostrich*. 



Hochstetter, arguing from his own personal observations 

 and from some previously known facts, approximated to the 

 opinions of Dr. and Mr. W. B. Mantell. He thought that 

 the extinction of the Moas could not be thrown back 

 several thousand years f- He regarded their existence as 

 alone capable of explaining the development which the popu- 

 lation of New Zealand had attained J, and attributed the 

 origin of anthropophagism to the deficiency of animal food 

 resulting from their extermination §. He consequently iden- 

 tified the existing race of Maoris with the hunters of the 

 Moas. 



To sustain a very different doctrine Dr. Haast especially 

 appeals to geology. The boues of Moas, he says, occur 

 principally in the beds which were formed during the glacial 

 period or immediately after it|i. Having himself collected a 

 certain number of these bones in situ, it seems to him to be 

 demonstrated that these large birds represented, in New Zea- 

 land, the gigantic quadrupeds which inhabited the northern 

 hemisphere during the post-Pliocene period. Hence he does 

 not hesitate to refer the existence of the Moas to an epoch as 

 far from the present time as that of the mammoth, tlie rhino- 

 ceros, cave-lion, and cave-bear, the remains of which are found 

 in European Quaternary deposits ; and he asserts that if the 

 Moas survived these times, geologically so different from ours, 

 they were nevertheless speedily annihilated^. 



It will be seen that Dr. Haast seems to assume not only 

 the analogy of the glacial phenomena which took place in 

 New Zealand and in Europe, but also their contemporaneity. 

 We have to do here with geology proper, and questions of 

 this kind are out of my province. Nevertheless, even accept- 

 ing these two propositions as true, and reasoning by analogy, 



* Hochstetter, he. cit. p. 190. f Ibid, 



\ Loc. cit. p. 194. § Loc. cit. p. 196. 



II Loc. cit. p. 68. ^ Loc. cit. p. 7o. 



