104 PETRIFACTIONS AND THEIE TEACHINGS. CHAP. II. 



I accompanied him in search of this place, and was rewarded 

 by getting many curious specimens, and several skulls with 

 mandibles. The beak very much resembles that of the Os- 

 trich or Emeu. 



" This cave is on the west side of the North Island, in the 

 limestone formation which extends along the coast. The 

 country around is wild, and there are many similar caves, 

 which, we were told, also contained bones. The popular 

 opinion is that the country has been set on fire by an erup- 

 tion of Tongariro, and that all the moas fled to the caves for 

 refuge, and there perished. From traditions and other cir- 

 cumstances, it is supposed that the present natives of New 

 Zealand came to these islands not more than 600 years ago. 

 However this may be, that the Moa was alive when the first 

 settlers came is evident from the 'name of this bird being 

 mixed up with their songs and stories. One of the bones I 

 obtained bore marks of having been cut or chopped, perhaps 

 to get at the marrow." 1 



FAUNA AND FLORA OP NEW ZEALAND. Before entering 

 upon the examination of the relics of the extinct bipeds of 

 the Islands of the South Pacific, let us briefly consider the 

 characters of the existing fauna and flora, which are as pecu- 

 liar and remarkable as those we are endeavouring to decipher 

 from their fossil remains. 



New Zealand at the present time offers the most striking 

 example of a now acknowledged fact in every department of 

 natural history, namely, that different areas of dry land are 

 endowed with peculiar forms of animal and vegetable exis- 

 tences; they are centres, or foci of creation, so to speak, of 

 certain organic types. And this law, with whose effects 

 through countless ages, geological researches have made us 

 familiar, appears to have continued in unabated energy to 

 the present time. 



Dr. Dieffenbach has the following remarks on this sub- 

 ject : 



" Although in its flora New Zealand has some relationship 

 with the two large continents between which it is situated, 

 America and Australia, and even possesses some species 

 identical with those of Europe, without the latter being 



1 Letter to Dr. Andrew Smith, dated Auckland, October, 1849. 



