Mantell on Fossil Remains from New Zealand. 39 



from the face of the earth ; and that subsequently to this "Age 

 of Strut hiomdcB" the land has undergone those physical changes, 

 by which the areas occupied by the ornithic ossiferous deposits, 

 and the beds of shingle and loam, which now form terraces from 

 50 to 100 feet above the sea-level, were elevated to their present 

 positions. This inference seems to be corroborated by the fact 

 that the existing mountain-torrents and rivers flow in deep chan- 

 nels which they have eroded in these pleistocene deposits ; in like 

 manner as the rivers of Auvergne have excavated their course 

 through the mammiferous tertiary strata of that country. 



The accounts given by Mr. Oolenso, the Rev. H. Taylor and 

 others, of the exposure of the bone-bed in the channels of the 

 mountain-streams, and of the bones being left on the river-shoals 

 aiter heavy floods, remind us of the conditions under which the 

 mammalian fossils of the Sub-Himalayas were first brought un- 

 der the notice of our eminent countrymen, Major Cant ley and 

 Dr. Falconer. And in New Zealand, as in India, the fossil re- 

 mains of extinct animals are associated with those of existing 

 genera; and the land is still inhabited by diminutive representa- 

 tive forms of the colossal beings which flourished in the pleisto- 

 cene, or early human epoch ; for the Apteryx and the Porphurio 

 may be regarded as the living types of the Moa and the Notornis. 



I do not deem it necessary to enlarge on the question whether 

 the Dinornis and Palapteryx still exist in New Zealand: on this 

 point I would only remark, that Mr. Colenso, who was the first 

 observer that investigated the nature of the fossil remains with 

 due care and the requisite scientific knowledge, (having deter- 

 mined the struthious affinities of the birds to which the bones 

 be I 



intelligence could have reached him of the result of Professor 

 Owen's examination of the specimens transmitted to this coun- 

 try,) has given, in his masterly paper before quoted, very cogent 

 reasons for the belief that none of the true Moas exist, though it 

 W probable the last of the race were exterminated by the early 

 ^habitants of these islands. 



onged, and pointed out their remarkable characters, ere any 



the 

 nc- 



tiut whatever may be the result of future researches as to 

 relative age of the ossiferous deposits, or the existence or exti 

 l *on of the colossal bipeds whose relics are before us, this fact 

 cannot be questioned — the vast preponderance of the class of 

 jwds which prevailed (and still prevails) in the fauna of New 

 Zealand, to the almost entire exclusion of mammalia and reptiles. 



pal™.™. 



son alone, could not but feel surprise at its extent and variety. I 

 ^ay venture to affirm that such an assemblage of the fossil bones 

 °f birds was never before seen in Europe — nearly one thousand 

 specimens collected from various parts of the country, with 

 scarcely any intermixture of those of any other class : it is a phe- 



