CocKBUEN-HooD. — New Zealand a Post-f/lacial Centre of Creation. 7 



and dasyures over those of Aiistralia ; the moas and other wingless bnds 

 flourished in the then more extensive laud of New Zealand, and the levels 

 under the Eocky 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 laud 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 withdi'ew "who 

 wished to escape being frozen," an excellent opportunity afforded for the 

 extinction of many nearly effete tribes, and the sm'vival 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 Haeckel's date for pliocene men, 

 being the great ice age according 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, primaeval men must 

 have Avitnessed strange scenes. 



The migration of the survivors, leaving in many cases no representa- 

 tives behind them, is a difficult problem to solve, — the Avingless 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." 



