238 EXTINCT MONSTERS. 



there is not on any of the bones any trace of such violence as must 

 have left its mark if the death of the birds had been caused by a 

 Moa-hunting mankind. Finally, it does not appear that in this 

 particular district there ever has been, at any traceable period 

 of the physical history of the land, a forest vegetation, such as 

 might suggest that the catastrophe was caused by fire. 



" The question how to account for the slaughter is raised like- 

 wise by two previous finds of Moa bones. The first of these, at 

 Glenmark, in Canterbury, was the most memorable, because, 

 being the first, it made the deepest impression. The second 

 great find, far inland, up the Molineux River, otherwise the 

 Clutha, was beneath the diluvium that is now worked by the 

 gold-digger. The spot must have been the site of a lagoon, 

 at one point of which there was a spring. Round about this 

 point there were found the remains of, it was reckoned, five 

 hundred individual Moas. The bones were quietly laid there, 

 with, in some cases, the ' heap ' of digestive stones in situ along 

 with the skeletons. And Mr. Booth, whose elaborate investiga- 

 tion of this case is recorded in the annual volume of The New 

 Zealand Institute, suggested the theory that the climate of New 

 Zealand was changing to a degree of cold intolerable to Moa 

 nature ; and that the birds, fleeing from its rigour, sought comfort 

 in the spring of water, sheltering their featherless breast in it, and 

 so dozing out of this troubled life. And in this new find the 

 wonder comes back unmitigated, as a mystery unsolved. For 

 here is no bog deep enough, as in the first instance, nor lagoon 

 spring, as in the second, to account for that multitude of giant 

 birds dying in one spot. 



" Another curious puzzle is, on close inspection, found every- 

 where in the Moa bone discoveries. It is hardly possible to 

 make sure that the bones of any one complete Moa skeleton all 

 belong to the same individual. I heard some one say the other 

 day that it is not certain that any Moa in any earthly museum has 

 all his own bones, and only his own. 



