^42 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



nectecl with Moa bones in such a way as to admit of no other explanation than 

 that they were connected with the birds. The bones on the top were in a much 

 better state of preservation than those at the bottom. There were a large number 

 of bones that had been broken and healed. " A disease of the foot appeared to 

 have been very prevalent amongst them, as a great number of the joints presented 

 unmistakable indications of rot, so much so that some of the toe joints had even 

 grown together." 



There were no bones of young birds near the top, and no fragments of eggs 

 were found anywhere in the deposit, although careful search was made for them. 



After stating these and other facts, Mr. Booth goes on to discuss the differ- 

 ent theories to account for this wonderful accumulation of bones. He shows that 

 they could not have been deposited by running water, neither could the Moas 

 have been surrounded and driven in there in such great numbers by sweeping 

 fires, the birds could not have been bogged, certainly not the latter ones, with 

 two or three feet of solid bones under them. And that the bones were not 

 thrown there by savages seems proven by the fact that not a trace of their work 

 could be found, not a hacked or scratched bone nor an implement or trinket of 

 any kind. 



Mr. Booth thinks that a true explanation of the deposit explains the extinc- 

 tion of the Moa, at least in that section, and that that time was much earlier than 

 the date generally accepted, and was caused by the gradual lowering of the tem- 

 perature until the warmth of the earth and air was not sufficient to hatch the eggs 

 of these birds, from which time they gradually declined, until they finally all dis- 

 appeared. " When the frost and snow of winter began to set in, though far 

 milder than now, it would have distressed the Moa, as on account of its great 

 size it could not find shelter like smaller birds> hence it would select places where 

 it found the most warmth. 



The spring water in the bone pit being of the same temperature as the earth, 

 and far above freezing point (in fact, it may have been a thermal spring;, when 

 all around the bird could not put down his foot without being bitten with frost, 

 or without placing it in snow and ice, what would be more natural for them than 

 to step into this comparatively warm water, which, to some extent, would relieve 

 their suffering from cold in their lower extremities. Thus, the period when frost 

 and snow began to set in I place as the commencement of the deposit of bones in 

 this pit. The accumulation would have been very gradual, perhaps for centuries, 

 and the periodical deposits would only have increased at the same rate as the 

 frost and snow. This process continuing, until not even in the most favored 

 places would their eggs hatch, and the last of their race were, therefore doomed 

 to annihilation, a period would arrive which must have been with the poor birds 

 a time of indescribable suffering. Thus afflicted with pain, famishing with hun- 

 ger (as whatever their food was it lay deep under the snow-mantle of the earth), 

 and finding cruel nature arrayed against them, pinching their bodies with pierc- 

 ing winds, from which they had no shelter, and cutting their feet with ice and 

 frost, were it only as an alleviation of pain when dying, I can see nothing more 



