604 
NATURE 
[April 14, 1870 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 
[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 
by his Correspondents. No notice is taken of anonymous 
communications. | 
The Dinornis 
I OBSERVE in your interesting paper of Feb. 17th, a state- 
ment that the larger varieties of Dinornis had, in all probability, 
become extinct before the occupation of the Middle Island of 
New Zealand by the present race of natives. I have observed 
previous statements to the same effect, supported by the authority 
of gentlemen whose opinions deserve the highest consideration, 
and by the assertion that no tradition of the existence of such 
birds has been found amongst the present representatives of the 
native race. I have good reason to question the accuracy of the 
latter assertion, at any rate. 
I was myself in New Zealand for nearly seven years, from 
1841 to 1848, and I had unusual opportunities of becoming 
acquainted with the condition of the Middle Island as it then 
was, haying been in the service of the New Zealand Company 
as a surveyor and explorer in the settlement of Nelson, and sub- 
sequently in the other districts now known as Canterbury, Otakou, 
and Southland. I can state positively that some of the natives then 
resident in the Motueka and Motupippi districts of the Nelson 
settlement, at a time when the actual existence of such birds past or 
present had not been suspected, told us what appeared to us to be 
foolish stories about large birds which their immediate ancestors 
had been in the habit of hunting. One of them described to us 
most vividly the manner in which they beset these birds with 
dogs, and the mode in which the birds defended themselves by 
kicking. He stated that the dogs were frequently killed by a single 
kick, and that men not unfrequently had limbs broken in the 
same way. Other stories there were of an extravagant character, 
indicating perhaps a more remote origin—about birds so very 
large that one of them was said to haye pulled down out of a 
tall tree an unfortunate hunter who had endeayoured to conceal 
himself there, and had ea¢ez him on the spot; and these latter 
stories, no doubt, induced us to treat the others with less con- 
sideration. 
I never met a native chief who told me that he had himself 
seen such a bird alive, and I do not think that any native whom 
I should have been inclined to trust ever told me even that his 
father had seen such birds, but they did assert expressly that their 
fathers—by which they would mean immediate ancestors, had so 
hunted and killed these large birds. I was further assured, at 
a later period, by a native chief named Teraki, who resided 
near the mouth of the Taieri River in the Otakou district, that he 
believed such birds still existed in the interior of the country, 
and that if I would go with him for a month he thought that he 
could show them to me. The same man told me curious stories 
about the existence, in the interior, of a quadruped whose habits 
he described, and which, if it did really exist at all, must, I 
think, have been a description of beaver. That fact may pos- 
sibly tend to discredit his evidence, but I can only say that if 
it had been possible for me, consistently with my duties at that 
time, to go with him, I should have been very glad to do so. 
The country to which he referred as the interior was the 
country to the west of the Taieri River, towards the source of 
that and of the Matou, or Molyneaux. It has, since that time, 
been fully explored, in consequence of the discovery of gold there, 
and it does not appear probable that he was correct in supposing 
that such birds still lived, though there are stories among the 
early explorers of having seen and heard strange things. 
The rarity of these birds was attributed by Teraki and other 
natives of that district in which they were once abundant to over 
hunting, and to the fires, which, sweeping across a country 
coyered principally with coarse grasses, had destroyed nests and 
eggs, and driven the birds themselves into the swamps for 
refuge, to meet death by suffocation from smoke and water. 
Such an explanation appears to me to be probably correct, 
and the fact that complete skeletons have been found in the 
Taieri swamp, in a situation to which no existing stream of 
water could have carried so large a carcase, appears to lend 
weight to it. I have myself found on the low hills to the south 
of the river Matou the charred remains of egg-shells and bones 
of some variety of that genus, but not of the largest. I was 
instrumental in obtaining the first specimens of bones of such 
large varieties of the Dinornis as were discovered in the Middle 
Island. They were procured from a bed of peaty soil beneath the 
sands at the ancient embouchure of the Waikouaite River near 
Otakou, on an occasion when extraordinary low tides followed a 
strong south-east wind. They were forwarded from Waikouaite 
to Colonel Wakefield, and sent by him to Professor Owen, but 
there was not among them any complete skeleton, or any com- 
plete head. 
Halstead WILLIAM DAVISON 
The Earthquake at Manilla: its Theoretical Significance 
THE first section of my Outline of a Theory of Earthquakes and 
Volcanic Eruptions,* which appeared in March 1869, concluded 
with the words, ‘‘ At the same time we take advantage of this 
opportunity to refer to the catastrophe which, according to our 
theory, must occur on the 30th of September or the Ist of 
October of this year, and to call the attention of the inhabitants 
of those countries which are more especially exposed to earth- 
quakes—that is to say, equatorial lands, particularly Peru, the 
East Indies, &c.—to the danger which threatens them.” I wrote 
these words under the immediate impression of the results derived 
from my strict investigation of the earthquakes from 1848 to 
1868—an investigation which awakened in me the firm con- 
viction that the influence of the moon upon earthquakes is an 
incontestable fact. As these results were then known to me only, 
the prediction referred to must have surprised those scientific 
men who may consider themselves authorities fon this subject. 
There was nothing peculiar in this. But the remarkable circum- 
stance was that, although Jdefore the Ist of October not a single 
yoice was raised against my theory, after that day (which 
passed in Peru without an earthquake) there appeared in the 
Cologne Gazette an anonymous article laden with the most vehe- 
ment abuse of myself. I was able to take it quietly, because 
I knew I was in the right. For I had nowhere mentioned 
the localities to be visited by the threatened earthquake so 
exactly, nowhere defined the limits of it so closely, as the public 
thought fit to assume. In every passage I made use of the vague 
expression, ‘‘ Zguatorial countries,” adding, by way of example, 
Peru, Mexico, Equador, the East Indies, &c.; in fact, at present, 
my theory does not admit of my explaining myself otherwise. 
People overlooked, or wished to overlook, the fact that in this 
case stress was laid upon ¢he ¢7me and not the place. In the same 
way the earthquake in the Rhine country on the 2nd October, 
and the devastating outbreak of the volcano Puraie in Columbia 
on the 4th October, + were passed over with the most marvellous 
silence. I comforted myself, however, with the hope that later 
intelligence would afford me satisfaction, and I was not mistaken. 
Early in November a telegram announced that a ‘‘severe earth- 
quake” had caused great destruction in Manilla ; still no date 
was added, and for a few days I was only able to say that I 
supposed this earthquake took place on the 1st October. (See 
‘*Sirius,” vol. iii. p. 7.) But the Bulletin Hebdomadaire, of the 
oth January last, brought the following decisive intelligence of 
extraordinary importance for the earthquake theory : — ‘‘ We 
learn from the Coxrier of the Philippine Islands that an earth- 
quake took place at Manilla on the 1st October last. It was 
about half-past eleven in the morning when the first shocks 
were felt. Then followed the most frightful oscillations which 
lasted forty-five or fifty seconds, or, according to other observers, 
even over a minute. These oscillations were regular measured 
cadences, and violent, like the rocking of a ship ina storm. 
According to the indications of the pendulum, they were first in 
the direction S.E.—N.W., later N.E.—S.W. Many persons 
became sea-sick. The terror of the inhabitants during these 
anxious moments was fearful. They thought of the earthquake 
in the year 1863,” &c., &c. 
In accordance with the foregoing is the following information 
inthe Gazette of the Eastern Seas—‘‘ Manilla, Oct. 2: The earth 
shook during yesterday’s earthquake in themost alarming manner, 
like a ship in a violent storm; walls and beams cracked; all 
the walls in the rooms showed splits, and the ground was 
everywhere covered with chalk and mortar. In the garrison 
town of Manilla itself, the entire fagade of the Augustine 
* Three sections have appeared up to the present time. 
t+ The newspapers give the following account of the catastrophe :—‘‘ In- 
telligence: has been received of a violent eruption of the volcano Puraie in 
Columbia, accompanied by terrible devastation and loss of human life. 
Towards three o'clock on the fourth of October, the mountain began with 
violent eruption to throw up immense masses of ashes and lava. Two or 
three villages at its foot are said to have been entirely destroyed, with their 
inhabitants. The water of the River Canoa rose at Popayan a foot above 
its usual height, and the rapid current thus occasioned brought down lava 
and the bodies of men and animals from the devastated localities. At eleven 
o'clock on the morning of the same day the river was almost dried up.” 
