Mantell on Fossil Remains from New Zealand. 31 



inconsiderable streams, all of which are in immediate connection 

 with hills of some altitude. 5 ' 



A mutilated cranium, described by Professor Owen.* was ob- 

 tained by Mr. Williams from the bed of a mountain-stream de- 

 scending to the coast of Poverty Bay in the North Island. An- 

 other, sent over by W. Swainson, Esq.,f is from the vicinity of 

 the Bay of Islands. u Both of these have a ferruginous tint and 

 great weight, arising from an infiltration of peroxyd of iron ; but the 

 cancelli of the bone contain only a little of the dry powdery allu- 

 vium of the stream into which the specimens have been washed. "J 



The Rev. W. Oolenso, who in 1841-1842 accompanied Mr. 

 Williams in search of the Moa, has given a very interestii ^ 

 count of the circumstances under which the bones were procured 

 in the bed of the Waiapu river by the natives, by whom they 

 were sought for to make fish-hooks.^ He states, that travelling 

 southward from Poverty Bay, he came within sight of Waka- 

 punake, the mountain celebrated among the natives as the resi- 

 dence of the surviving Moas; but no bones were obtained from 

 thence. " The Maories affirmed that Moas lived there, but ad- 

 mitted that no one had seen any of these gigantic bipeds. The 

 Moa's bones were to be found only after the fioods occasioned by 

 heavy rains, when they were to be seen after the waters subsided, 

 washed up on the banks of gravel and mud on the river-side; 

 but none were then to be procured. I offered large rewards for 

 any that should be met with, and directed them to be taken to 

 Mr. Williams in Poverty Bay. At the base of the mountain is the 



Wairoa 



paddled 



perceived no bones. Finding that we were willing to pay largely 

 for specimens, a hundred persons set about hunting for them, and 

 brought those they collected to Mr. Williams." Mr. Colenso 

 states, that hitherto (in 1842) bones have only been found within 

 the waters and channels of those rivers which discharge them- 

 selves into the southern ocean between the East Cape and the 

 ^uth head of Hawke's Bay, on the east coast of the North 

 island. They only occur on the banks of gravel, &c. in the 

 shallowest parts of the rivers after floods occasioned by heavy 

 ra *ns. and when the waters have subsided to their usual level. 



M These rivers are in several places at a considerable depth be- 

 low the present surface of the soil, often possessing a great incli- 

 JJJtion, as it is at once perceived by the rapidity of their currents. 

 They have all a delta of greater or less extent at their mouths, 

 from an inspection of which it is obvious that their channels 



* Zool. Trans., vol. iii, p. 308, pi. 38. t Ibid. 



♦ rn.C Owen in Zool. Trans., vol iii, p. 308. 



5 cee Annals and Mae. of iNat. Hist., vol. xiv, New Series, p. 81. 



