CHAPMAN.— On Moa Remains, 175 
stability in comparison with that beside the foot-prints, leaving the sur- 
rounding soil to blow away more readily. The next occasion upon which I 
noticed moa remains was in a bank of débris thrown up on the side of an old 
Maori chert quarry, at Gray’s Hills Station, to which I propose to refer in 
another paper. In this bank several well-preserved fragments of bone were 
found so broken and so situated as to leave no doubt that they had been 
left there by Maoris working at the quarry. The specimen which I exhibit 
is manifestly broken by human agency. It may have formed part of the 
handle of an instrument for getting out the chert, or for splintering it when 
gotten ; but there is nothing in its appearance to support this. 
Early in March, 1884, I accompanied my brother and several others on 
an excursion to Mount Cook. Our first halting place was Lake Tekapo, 
one of the reservoirs of the Waitaki, a beautiful alpine lake about 2,800 feet 
above the sea on the upper edge of the Mackenzie Plain. As the lake is 
approached from Burke’s Pass a large uninviting patch of sandy country 
may be noticed surrounding the woolshed of Mr. Cowan’s station. A hun- 
dred acres or so of country here have a very unpleasing appearance. Some- 
thing has set the sand moving in a south-easterly direction and nothing can 
stop it. A large part of the ground has been stripped of the loose friable 
soil down to a hard bed, which dries and crumbles in the sun and is set 
moving by the wind. The sand thus set free has then covered another large 
part of this sandy country, half choking the tussaes in some places and 
killing them out in others. Upon the hard bare part I observed what must 
be a rare sight. Here and there lay scattered the last remains of giant 
moas. Iam unable to say to what species they belonged as the bones are 
generally too brittle to bring away, but all or nearly all appeared to be of 
one species. I found no less than nine specimens, not lying close together 
but quite isolated. In most cases the femur and the tibia of each leg 
remained apparently lying in the exact position in which they had fallen when 
the bird fell to pieces. In one or two cases I found fragments of smaller 
bones. In some cases even these very heavy bones had nearly disappeared. 
Here, as elsewhere, I noticed that the femur was about the last bone to 
disappear. In nearly every case the cluster of gizzard stones lay with the 
group of bones. So striking and obvious was the fact that here the remains 
of these great birds lay where they had died, that when I stood upon a 
slight eminence I could at one time see three or four of these white groups 
of bones at once, perfectly isolated, with no loose bones on the intermediate 
ground. The last I found was in a paddock which had once been enclosed 
in a gorse hedge. In this unused enclosure lay a few well-preserved frag- 
ments. I did not gather any gizzard stones here, as I had no means of 
carrying them, aud on my return no opportunity offered. The remains had 
