306 
quite intelligible if we regard the cyclone region of the Chinese 
Sea as an extension of that of the Bay of Bewgal; it will then 
be seen that the cyclones follow the sun This, however, must 
be understood with the qualification «fat they follow the sun at 
sume distance: the number of cyclones in the Indian Ocean 
appears to reach its maximu ata month or two after the equinoxes. 
This is for the same reason that the warmest period of the year 
is not at but after Midsummer. 
The distribution of cyclones in the West Indian Seas is to be 
explained in the same way. The two trade-winds meet in the 
Atlantic alittle to the north of the equator; for this reason 
cyclones are frequent in the West In lies bat unknown over the 
South Atlantic, and they are most numerous at the end of 
summer, Josera JoHN MurpHy 
Old Forge, Dunmurry, Co. Antrim 
Saturn’s Rings 
An absence in the country prevented my seeing Lieut. Davies’s 
letter in time for an earlier reply. I will ans ver him onall points, 
and have done with him, for he employs unfair arguments to 
impeach me. 
1. I dety him to point out the smallest word or slightest ex- 
pression in my remarks on his work that justifies him in asserting 
**that I commenced my notice very much und-r the impression 
that Prof. Clerk Maxwell having investigated the stanility of | 
Saturn’s rings, no one else is to venture into any discussion on 
their nature and origin.” IL never for a moment entertained, 
much less expressed, such a thought. I simply pointed out that 
Prof. Maxweil had shown rings of satellites to be the only ones 
which could exist, and I said merely that Lieut. Davies, ‘‘ having 
espoused this theory, had sought an explanation” of it. Lieut. 
Davies's allusion toa caveat is therefore an empty fl urish. 
2. Lieut. Davies says I “assert” that he has not seen Prof. 
Maxwell’s work. This is an unpardonable misstatement. I said 
he ‘‘appears not” to have seen the work ; and I was driven to 
this assumption, since Lieut. Davies, while actually using Max- | 
well’s labours, never mentions his name. Certainly he is at 
liberty to choose his own starting point: but he should credit | 
the well and not the bucket (Mr. Proctor will pardon me) for hi 
inspiring draught. 
3. As to faith in figures. I take for g:anted that no rational 
man would publish numerical data unless he believed his figures 
really to mean what they stand for. Now, the rate of the solar 
motion is not known to within a thousand mies an hour, and 
the solar parallax is only certain to the first place of decimals. 
As Lieut. Davies prints the first of these data to a mile, and the 
second to four decimal places, he has clearly too great faith in 
figures. He may say that ‘‘other observers” (why observers ?) 
do the same ; that does not excuse him, Further, a different 
rate of solar motion must alter his spirals ; if there were no 
mouon he would have no spiral. 
4. I know that ‘‘ very clever nien” have held the meteoric 
theory of the sun, but I also know that ‘‘very clever men” 
have held other theories. Lieut. Davie-, in denying my assertion | 
that he is ‘*blindly enraptured” with the me eoric theory, 
actually supports me; for when he says that ‘‘none of the 
modem theories, ‘cumbrous vagaries of the brain,’ can compare 
with it,” it is clear that he cannot see the fairness of any crow 
but his own, and this is blind infatuarion., 
5. Either we are not agreed upon the meaning of ‘‘ cyclonic,” 
or Lieut. Davies is sun-spot blind. I call such a spot as that 
reproduced on page 232 of Mr. Proctor’s bouk “ cyclonic,” and 
I have seenm ny, both on the sun and in d awings, of his | 
character. Lieut. Davies’s range of observation must be limited 
if he has not seen sume also. Mr. Carring on’s work is quite 
beside the question; he did not delineate spots, he merely 
measured and counted them, 
Your REVIEWER 
Extinction of the Moa 
THE very interesting article on the Moain your issue of July 
6th by Dr. Hector adds considerably to the facts already ascer- 
tained as to its existence along with man, and also as to the 
probability of its recent disappearance. Visving in 1866 and 
1867 many of tne places mentioned by the Doctor in the Middle 
Island, I had opportun ties of seeing portions of their remains in 
various conditions, either in caves, river sides, or in the open 
country where cultivation was yong on, or on the sides of the 
hills in the interior, and certainly the impression produced was, 
NATURE 

[Aug. 17, 1871 

that not perhaps more than fifty years had elapsed since some of 
the remans had formed part of living birds. 
On the Kourow range of hills in the north of Otago, I saw 
Moa bones and those of a wild pig in close proximity; and, 
though certainly those of the former were more weathered, taking 
into consideration the greater density of the latter, it did appear 
as if there had not been a great many years between the deaths 
of each. I have also some bones in my possession, and there 
are others in the Geological Society’s Museum in Edinburgh, 
found on the surface of the Carrick ranges, a place alluded to 
by Dr. Hector, the unexposed portions of which do not seem 
very aged. While agrecing with Dr. Hector that there is reason 
to believe that the last of the race have only of late disappeared, 
viewing the question from the point of an agriculturist, I differ 
somewhat as to the causes. He says that the facts he adduces 
‘Safford strong evidence that the bird has been exterminated by 
human agency, though the race was expiring from natural causes.” 
It seeins to me that in such a country as New Zealand their loss 
has arisen from natural causes, though the Aborigines may hive 
assisted somewhat to diminish their number. Dr. Hector admits 
that there are still portions of Otago where the foot of man has 
scarcely trod, notwithstanding the search for gold, perhaps the 
most eager which can exist. The Moa had these districts to 
retire to. In the Middle Island very few Maories dwelt, 
and their numbers were kept down by the forays of the more 
warlike inhabicants of the North Island. The pigs, supplied to 
the natives by Captain Cook, have spread over the island and 
increased jargely, and have only been prevented from still further 
increasing by the use of the musket and the occupation of the 
country by the settlers. While the Kiwi still miintainsi s place, 
itis hard to believethatmanhasexterminated the Moa. Thenatural 
causes, however, it seems to me, are quite sufficient, Dr. Hector 
speaks of lar.e fires having spread over the centre of Otago, It 
would appear that the pine woods, which have covered so many 
of the hill sides of the interior, had reached a certuin sta_e of 
decay, and, from the occurrence of droughts less severe than 
those of Australia, perhaps, fires lighted by the natives had 
spread to these woods, and though an underzrowth of 
fern and moss might reard the progress when once the 
pine timber, with its resinous qualities, thoroughly caught, 
there was little chance of it going out save from breaks 
caused by rivers or bare places. As these fires spread over the 
interior, destroying everyihingintheshape of bush or tree, the native 
grasses took their place, none of which seemed to me to afford 
| fit ing food for such a bird, and with these grasses a plant calied 
| by the native Tutu occupics much of the country. The leaves of 
| this plant a-e, under certain condiiions, destructive to live stock; 
while the berry which it produces u:ay be eaten with impunity, 
provided the stone it contains be not swallowed ; the settlers 
making a wholesome jelly of the pulp, and sometimes wine, 
Here, then, we have a vast portion of the country cleared of its 
food supplies, from the trees and shrubs which produced it being 
destroyed, and we have a poisonous plant abounding, which does 
not grow freely under wood. Dr. Hector speaks of counting thirty- 
seven skeletou heaps of Moxs onthe side of the Wakatipu Lake, 
and supposes that they had been driven there by fire. This mey 
be so, but I have seen a great many similar heaps, in the centre of 
each of which two or three handfuls of quartz pebbles lay on the 
flat alluvial lands on the sides of s reams and near the seashore, 
where beds of gravel then were, to which the birds could have re- 
tired, had they been pressed with fire, as no vegetation cou'd have 
existe! there. It therefore seems to me that the reason why so 
many skeletons are found on the surface near streams or water, 
arises from the fact that these creatures, pressed by hunger, par- 
| took of the Tutu berries, and that thirst. which so often accom- 
panies poisoning, caused them to take to such places for drink. 
{ have heard it stated that in periods of drought the Emus of 
Australia travel great distances for water. Though water is far 
more abundant in New Zealand, it is often only in the streams 
that it can be had. JaMEs MELVIN 




NOTES 
THE following is the programme of the subjects to be sub- 
mitted for discussion at the International Congress of Anthropo- 
logy and Archeol gy, to be held at Bologna from the Ist of 
October wext:—The stone age in Italy ; 2. The caverns of the 
shores of the Mediterranean, especially of Tuscany, compared 
with the caves of the south of France ; 3. The lake habitations 

