Booth. — Description of the 2/oa Swamp at Hamilton." 133 



the mouths of the burns comiug in from the hills, where the bones have been 

 brought down by freshets. This is easy to determine by their waterworn 

 appearance. This level would come to within one mile of Hamilton, a little 

 below the place called "The Fortifications." The Sowburn would have been 

 under water, the water would have been up to the mouth of Puketoitoi, at 

 Murison's, and Naseby would have been just above the shore of the lake. 



For about six miles I have examined the banks of the Sowburn, where it 

 has cut a channel through the plain, with banks on one side or the other from 

 5 to 15 feet high, giving a splendid chance to see whether there are bones in 

 the soil. I have also examined the banks of the Pigburn for the same 

 distance, as well as a tail-race, one mile long, cut up from the Taieri near the 

 Hamilton and Naseby crossing, and in all these banks I have yet to find the 

 first Moa-bone. Equally unsuccessful was I in searching the banks of several 

 burns on the other side of the Taieri. 



I have crossed these plains in several different places, and do not recollect 



seen a Moa-bone below the level spoken of. 



I have also inquired of several shepherds who live on the plain, and who 

 have walked over every acre of it, and none of them recollect having seen a 

 Moa-bone below the level I have mentioned. 



Even should an isolated skeleton be found it could be rationally accounted 

 for by a carcass having been brought down into the lake by a burn, floated 

 out and sunk. Now what does this fact point to? 



The only answer I can give is that the Moa was extinct in this locality 

 when the whole Maniototo Plain, from the level spoken of, was yet under 

 water; and I am quite certain that investigation will yet determine that 

 there are many more plains presenting the same indication . 



My conclusions were on this point, however, greatly shaken when I sub- 

 sequently found a seam of lignite at the water's edge of the Taieri River, for 

 the supposition that the birds had been extinct long enough for this lignite to 

 be formed could not be entertained. It then suddenly occurred to my mind 

 that some six or seven years previously I had sunk a prospecting shaft 60 feet 

 deep at the foot of the hills, not far from the lignite, and that the strata all 

 lay at an angle of about 75 degrees, pitching down towards the river. 



From this I came to the conclusion that it was not only possible, but quite 

 probable, that this lignite had been formed at a far higher level, and had, in a 

 comparatively recent period, sunk or slipped to its present level. 



That tliis country was, at a not very distant period, a great deal warmer 

 than it is now, I believe is not disputed, for there is irrefragable proof to that 

 effect, and also that it has gradually cooled to what we find it. 



Now, as there is incontrovertible proof that the bird flourished some 

 thousands of years ago, when the temperature of the earth and atmosphere 



