140 M. de Quatrefages on Moas and Moa-hmters. 



polished haches have been found mingled with the ancient 

 kitchen-middens, this, he declares, is because they were lost 

 or intentionally hidden in modern times, long after the hunters 

 of the Moas had disappeared*. The latter, he says repeat- 

 edly, never had any thing in common with the Maoris who 

 occupied New Zealand at the time of the arrival of the Euro- 

 peans. 



I think I have sufficiently indicated the mode of reasoning 

 and the nature of the arguments employed by Dr. Haast. I 

 shall not follow him here into the discussion of a number of 

 subjects upon which he touches, but which are only indirectly 

 connected with the principal question. However, I think I 

 ought to quote literally the conclusions with which he termi- 

 nates his third memoir f : — 



"1. The different species of the Dinornis or Moas began 

 to appear and flourish in the post-Pliocene period of New 

 Zealand. 



"■ 2. They have been extinct for such a long time that no 

 reliable tradition as to their existence has been handed down 

 to us. 



" 3. A race of Autochthones^ probably of Polynesian origin|, 

 was contemporary with the Moa, by whom the large wingless 

 birds were hunted and exterminated. 



" 4. A species of wild dog was contemporaneous with them, 

 which was killed and eaten by the Moa-hunters. 



" 5. They did not possess a domesticated dog. 



" 6. This branch of the Polynesian race possessed a very 

 low standard of civilization, using only rudely chipped stone 

 implements, whilst the Maoris, their direct descendants §, had, 

 when the first Europeans arrived in New Zealand, already a 

 high state of civilization in manufacturing fine polished stone 

 implements and weapons. 



"7. The Moa-hunters, who cooked their food in the same 

 manner as the Maoris of the present day do, were not can- 

 nibals. 



"8. The Moa-hunters had means to reach the Northern 

 Island, whence they procured obsidian ||. 



* Ibid. pp. 85, 104. 



t Third paper, * Trausactious ' &c. vol. iv. p. 106. 



X It is difHcult to understand the association of ideas which Dr. Haast 

 here wishes to express. 



§ Here, agaui, Dr. Haast's idea is not easy to understand. Throughout 

 he carefully distinguishes the existing Maoris from the Moa-hunters. 

 Here he seems to regard the former as being the grandsons of the latter. 



II Dr. Haast's investigations were made principally in the province of 

 Canterbmy, which is in the South Island. 



