Cocxsurn-Hoop.—New Zealand a Post-ylacial Centre of Creation. 7 
and dasyures over those of Australia; the moas and other wingless birds 
flourished in the then more extensive land of New Zealand, and the levels 
under the Rocky Mountains afforded sustenance to herds of mighty animals 
still, as well as the South African table-lands. 
It seems a remarkable fact in the history of organic life, that whilst so 
many of the contemporary animals have succumbed under various in- 
fluences during the lapse of time, these great birds of New Zealand should 
have continued to exist from far earlier ages still until very recent years 
(if indeed there are not individuals yet remaining), and is probably due 
to the persistence of an equable climate prevailing over a land in which 
they had no competitors. 
The struggle for life must, as the author of the “ History of Creation" 
admits, have been severe indeed—“ fearful,” as he remarks—for all forms 
of tropical fauna and flora especially; hemmed in on a narrow zone between 
two icy walls stretching nearly from pole to pole, the climate for them 
must have been rigorous in the extreme. There was in this crowded place 
of refuge, to which he observes all those wise creatures withdrew ‘‘ who 
wished to escape being frozen," an excellent opportunity afforded for the 
extinction of many nearly effete tribes, and the survival of the fittest; it 
certainly appears to have been an inconvenient time for man to have begun 
to push his way—100,000 years ago, Herr Haéckel’s date for pliocene men, 
being the great ice age aecording to Sir Charles Lyell. Unless develop- 
ment has proceeded since with more rapid strides than this writer assumes 
with his master it did during previous geological eras, primeval men must 
have witnessed strange scenes. 
The migration of the survivors, leaving in many cases no representa- 
tives behind them, is a difficult problem to solve,—the wingless birds to 
their special island habitats; the rodents of South America to theirs, 
leaving the monotremes and marsupials in sole possession of their ancestral 
domains. 
Without incurring the risk of being deemed deserving of the ‘contemp- 
tuous indignation poured upon those “old stagers grown grey in opposite 
views" who, with “ridiculous arrogance,” object under these difficult 
circumstances to receive the whole theory of descent as enunciated, and 
the correct pedigrees as offered by so eminent an authority and adventurous 
a thinker as the author of this history, we may be permitted to ask for 
some explanation of the formidable objections that stand in the way of our 
believing in this narrow zone amidst universal ice. The generality of 
persons who may read his work will scarcely be satisfied by his assurance 
that ** proofs demanded are needless.” 
