368 



INTEODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 



" One might almost be disposed," says Professor Owen, " to 

 regard New Zealand as one end of a mighty wave of the 

 unstable and ever-shifting crust of the earth, of which the 

 opposite end, after having been long submerged, has again 

 risen with its accumulated deposits in North America, show- 

 ing us, in the Connecticut sandstones, the foot-prints of the 

 gigantic birds which trod its surface before it sank ; and to 

 Bui-mise that the intermediate body of the land-wave, along 

 vphich the Dinornis may' have travelled to New Zealand, has 

 progressively subsided, and now lies beneath the Pacific 

 Ocean."* 



Fig. 286.— DrsoENist 



* Memoir on Dinornis, part 4, vol. iii. p. 328. . » j a.„^ 



-f This outline is copied, with the kmd pennission of Professor Ansted, from 



his Picturesque Sketches of Creation; a highly attractive and mterestmg 



volume. — Van Voorst. 



