Chapman. — On Moct 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 debris 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 2,300 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 tussacs 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. I am 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, and on my return no opportunity offered. The remains had 



