﻿Haast. — Moas and Moa Hunters. 69 



been able to sustain life over a long period, because tlie same species which 

 occur in the lower lacustrine and fluviatile deposits are again found in the 

 bogs and swamps, in the fissures of rocks, and in the kitchen middens of the 

 moa-hunting race, which latter evidently mark the end of the Dinornis age. 



As before observed, boggy grounds are also frequent localities for the 

 preservation of moa bones, of which, amongst others, the comparatively small 

 swamps near the Glenmark home station have yielded the richest harvest, and 

 where, as it appears from observations made during my excavations, a great 

 portion of the birds may have perished by becoming entangled in the swamp, 

 either by accident, or, what seems to me more probable, from having been 

 driven by fire or man into it in endeavouring to cross the valley. Another 

 portion of the bones, together with driftwood of large dimensions, which had 

 evidently been carried by floods into the swamp, were doubtless still connected 

 by the flesh and ligaments when deposited, as no water-worn bones were 

 found amongst them. Thus in some spots a complete leg of one specimen is 

 found without any bones of the same individual near it, whilst the neck of 

 another, or the pelvis of a third, each belonging to different species, lie close 

 to it. However, I intend to lay before you at a future meeting a detailed 

 account of the results obtained during the Glenmark excavations, for which 

 hitherto more pressing work has not afforded me the necessary time. I may 

 be permitted to state here only a few of the facts bearing u2^on the subject 

 under review. The Glenmark Swamp lies in a hollow of the post-pliocene 

 alluvium, skirting the hillsides. Its formation dates only from the end of 

 the post-pliocene period, when the alluvial beds were already existing. The 

 Glenmark Brook having afterwards cut a channel through these deposits, the 

 whole mode of formation is well exposed. Close to the swamp in question, 

 fluviatile deposits of a thickness of thirty feet, mostly silt and shingle, are 

 laid bare, with here and there a small layer of peaty matter interstratified, 

 pressed together by the superincumbent mass into a much smaller compass, 

 and containing great quantities of moa bones. Thus we have here ample 

 evidence that the different species of Binoi-nis existed already when the 

 valley was first filled with debris brought down during the glacier period 

 from the higher regions, and that they continued to flourish till not only was 

 the valley filled with alluvium, but also, in their turn, the hollows in the 

 latter became levelled by marsh vegetation, and by extraneous organic 

 substances, such as drift timber and animal remains, washed into them by 

 floods. Immediately below the Glenmark Swamp I obtained moa bones down 

 to the water's edge of the brook, at least thirty feet below the level of the 

 former, so that this alone convinces us that a long period must have elapsed 

 between the formation of the first and last deposits. Higher up the little 

 valley the excavations of the rivulet have been on a still larger scale. Two 



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