228 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Feb. 2, 
The Rev. W. Williams, in his letter of Feb. 1842, states, “that 
none of the bones have been found on dry land, but are all of them 
from the beds and banks of freshwater rivers, buried only a little 
distance in the mud. The largest number are from a small stream 
in Poverty Bay, the river Wairoa, and from many inconsiderable 
streams, all of which are in immediate connection with hills of some 
altitude.” 
A mutilated cranium, described by Professor Owen*, was obtamed 
by Mr. Williams from the bed of a mountain-stream descending to 
the coast at Poverty Bay in the North Island. Another, sent over 
by W. Swainson, Esq.+, is from the vicinity of the Bay of Islands. 
“Both of these have a ferruginous tint and great weight, arising 
from an infiltration of peroxide of iron; but the cancelli of the bone 
contain only a little of the dry powdery alluvium of the stream ito 
which the specimens have been washed {.”’ 
The Rev. W. Colenso, who in 1841-1842 accompanied Mr. 
Williams in search of the Moa, has given a very interesting account 
of the circumstances under which the bones were procured im the 
bed of the Waiapu river by the natives, by whom they were sought 
for to make fish-hooks§. He states, that travelling southward from 
Poverty Bay, he came within sight of Wakapunake, the mountain 
celebrated among the natives as the residence of the surviving Moas ; 
but no bones were obtained from thence. ‘‘The Maories affirmed 
that Moas lived there, but admitted that no one had seen any of 
these gigantic bipeds. The Moa’s bones were only to be found after 
the floods occasioned by heavy rains, when they were to be seen after 
the waters subsided, washed up on the banks of gravel and mud on 
the river-side ; but none were then to be procured. I offered large 
rewards for any that should be met with, and directed them to be 
taken to Mr. Williams in Poverty Bay. At the base of the moun- 
tain is the river Wangarao, which is a branch of the Wairoa, which 
runs into Hawke’s Bay; and down this we paddled for some distance, 
but perceived no bones. Finding that we were willing to pay largely 
for specimens, a hundred persons set about hunting for them, and 
brought those they collected to Mr. Williams.” Mr. Colenso states, 
that hitherto (in 1842) bones have only been found within the waters 
and channels of those rivers which discharge themselves into the 
southern ocean between the East Cape and the south head of 
Hawke’s Bay, on the east coast of the North Island. They only 
occur on the banks of gravel, &c. in the shallowest parts of the 
rivers after floods occasioned by heavy rains, and when the waters 
have subsided to their usual level.. 
“These rivers are in several-places at a considerable depth below 
the present surface of the soil, often possessing a great inclination, 
as is at once perceived by the rapidity of their currents. They have 
all a delta of greater or less extent at their mouths, from an mspec- 
tion of which it is obvious that their channels have considerably 
* Zool. Traus. vol. iil. p. 308, pl. 38. . + Ibid. 
+ Prof. Owen in Zool. Trans. vol. iii:4). 308. 
§ See Annals of Nat. Hist. vol. xiv. New Series, p. 81. 
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