130 PETRIFACTIONS AND THEIR TEACHINGS. CHAP. II. 



soared over the land, when the Moa and its kindred were the 

 denizens of New Zealand. 



Penguin. The remote antiquity and contemporaneity with 

 the Moa of another indigenous brevipennate genus are esta- 

 blished by the discovery of the humerus, ulna, metatarsals, 

 and other bones of Penguins ; the partial union, and dis- 

 tinct separation of the shafts of the three primitive ossicles 

 of the metatarsals, are characters that leave no question as to 

 the generic relations of the birds to which these remains 

 belonged. 



FOSSIL SEALS. A considerable number of vertebrae, ribs, 

 femora, scapulae, lower jaws with teeth, and fragments of 

 crania, belonging to two species of Seal, were found in the 

 ornithic bone-beds of the North and Middle Island ; and 

 the mineralized condition of these fossils those from Wain- 

 gongoro being filled with menaccanite sand, and 

 those from Waikouaiti with the earthy bitu- 

 minized materials of the submerged morass, 

 and their intermixture with the relics of the 

 Moa, &c.j leave no doubt of their contempo- 

 raneity with the superficial ossiferous deposits. 

 Whether these remains belong to the same species 

 as now frequent the shores of the Islands of the 

 Pacific (Phoca leptonyx, and P. leonina), I have 

 not had the opportunity of ascertaining. 



FOSSIL DOG. In the most ancient ossiferous 

 deposits at Waingongoro, and at so considerable 

 a depth as to leave no doubt that the animal 

 to which it belonged coexisted with the colossal 

 species of Moa, my son discovered the femur of a 

 Dog (Lign. 32) ; the only vestige of a terrestrial 

 FOSSIL FEMUR mammalian hitherto observed in these beds. 



This bone is in the same condition as those of 

 . ' the birds from that locality, and the cancellee are 

 $natsize W ' filled with menaccanite sand. (This interesting 

 and unique relic should be placed in the same 

 cabinet as the cranium with which it was found associated.) 

 Burnt bones of Man, Moa, and Dog. Table-case 16. 

 The natives directed my son's attention to some mounds 

 covered with herbage and ferns, which they informed him 

 contained bones and ashes, the refuse of feasts held by 



