44 Mantell on Fossil Remains from Neiv Zealand. 



•of the excessive obstinacy and mulishness of the natives, I fear your 

 indignation will be directed against me; but if so, let me assure you, 

 you are indeed in error. All that man could do I did to dissuade them 

 from turning oryctologists or pala?ornithists ; but to no purpose. Men, 

 women and children resolutely dashed at every bone that appeared 

 when the sand was removed ; and if they listened for a moment to my 

 entreaties and remonstrances, it was but to return with renewed vigor 

 to the work of destruction. 



" Mixed with the bones, but exceedingly rare, were the fragments 



of ee^-shells, of which I sent you my then best specimens by post 



*nn 



last April. I have also found six oval rings and one broad circular 

 rincr of the trachea. In coming down from Ngamotu I discovered a 

 few more remains of eggs ; one fragment is four inches long, and gives 

 a good chord by which to estimate the size of the original : as a rough 

 guess, I may say that a common hat would have served as an egg-cup 

 for it : what a loss for the breakfast-table! And if native traditions 

 are worthy of credit, the ladies have cause to mourn the extinction (?) 

 of the Dinornis : the long feathers of its crest were by their remote 

 ancestors prized above all other ornaments; those of the white crane, 

 which now bear the highest value, were mere pigeons' feathers in 

 comparison." 



I have given these extracts without correction or comment, as 

 they were written by my son for my private information, that I 

 might not weaken the graphic description of the exhumation of 

 the bones exhibited and described at the last meeting of the 

 Society. There are still some details required to render it cer- 

 tain that the bone-bed is always intercalated, when not laid bare 

 by modern denuding causes, between the blue clay with recent 

 marine shells and the conglomerate of volcanic pebbles and boul- 

 ders which forms a bed of from fifty to a hundred feet thick ; but 

 so far as I can interpret my son's meaning, and upon comparison 

 of his statements with those of Mr. Colenso and others, I con- 

 clude that such is its true geological position. There is also some 

 doubt whether in the heaps of ancient native fires which contain 

 hoiies of man, dog, and moa, those of the colossal birds may not 

 have been introduced by accident, and their charred appearance 

 have been occasioned by drying, from exposure to the air and 

 sun ; but it must be remarked that these specimens never con- 

 tain any of the sand in which they were imbedded, as the other 

 examples do. These and other points will, I doubt not, be satis- 

 factorily elucidated ere long, now that the collecting of the bones 

 of the extinct birds of New Zealand is so earnestly and sys- 

 tematically pursued. In the meanwhile, the imperfect and hasty 

 sketches of my son which I have placed before the Society, will 



not, 



unw 



19, Chester Square, Pimlico. 



