hVm ST A1ND UTUEAM. 



TT 



parian owners, ■without leave or permission, the owners cer- 

 tainly have recourse. It does not follow thai the Canadian 

 Government, because it has been to large outlay in si 

 and protecting streams, should reimburse itself directly' out 

 of the waters which have been benefited. The improvements 

 are for the benefit of the -whole people, and the tax for making 

 and maintaining the same should not be levied solely upon the 

 riparian owners. If the Government cannot maintain its 

 hatcheries out of the rentals of the waters over which it has 

 inherent absolute jurisdiction, and from fines, etc., it should 

 levy a general tax for the deficiency. But the riparian owners 

 having received a large and direct benefit, while the public 

 has only an appreciable and remote benefit, some concession is 

 certainly due from the riparian owners to the Government. 

 It seems, therefore, as if an equitable adjustment of the ac- 

 count could be easily reached. Either the riparian owners 

 should be alluwed some restricted right of leasing fishing 

 privileges lor rods along his "solum" of the river, or the Gov- 

 ernment should pay him a small annual rental for the relin- 

 quishment of uia rights. If some such compromise be not 

 soon effected, there will be trouble in the Provinces, especially 

 in New Brunswick. We hope some member of the Dominion 

 Parliament will press this matter upon the attention of that 

 honorable body. 



THE NEW ZEALAND MOA AND ITS 

 HUNTERS. 



THE history of New Zealand and its inhabitants prior to 

 its occupation by Europeans, is enveloped in the mys- 

 tery and uncertainty which surround that of every nation, and 

 particularly every burbarouB nation, which has no written 

 records of the past. Traditions the Maori has, of course ; but, 

 so vague, contradictory and mythological are they, that very 

 little reliance can be placed on any statements contained or 

 allusions made in them. There seems, however, little reason 

 to doubt that the present race of aboriginals migrated hither 

 from one of the Polynesian Islands, which their legends con- 

 cur in calling " Hawaiki," some three or four hundred years 

 ago; and that at the time of their arrival there were no 

 human inhabitants on any of the New Zealand group of 

 islands. But whether the aborignal race that was contem- 

 porary with, hunted and lived on the now extinct Dinornis, 

 were the immediate ancestors of the present natives, or 

 Whether they were an ancient people that died slowly out, or 

 eventually migrated, is a point that has not yet been, and 

 probably never will be, satisfactorily determined. At several 

 places in both the larger islands of New Zealand are found 

 distinct traces of works which, like the ancient mounds and 

 walls in your own country, indicate the existence in the dis- 

 tant past of a race of which the present aborigines know noth- 

 ing. Archaeological research has not, however, yet advanced 

 very far among us. Here, as in every new country, the prac- 

 tical side of life takes the lead ; and, beyond a tew discoveries 

 of this nature, briefly reported by travelers in the interior, 

 nothing on which to found a reliable theory has been ascer- 

 tained. The Morwris, who inhabit the Chatham Islands, are 

 beyond doubt the descendants of emigrants from New Zea- 

 land; and it is possible enough that their ancestors were the 

 remnant of the ancient Hew Zealanders, who, impelled by the 

 exigencies of want or war, or perhaps simply by a restless de- 

 sire for a new home, launched out in their frail canoes in 

 search of the more genial tropical climes of which their tra- 

 ditions probably sang. 



But whatever uncertainty may shroud the history ol the 

 Moa-hunters, the abundant remains of the great apterous bird 

 itself plainly show that both he and bis captors existed at one 

 time in considerable numbers in al! parts of New Zealand. 

 In many instances twenty or thirty moa skeletons, mixed with 

 those of the native dog, which was formerly cultivated in 

 New Zealand and in many others of the Polynesian Islands 

 as an article of food, have been found in caves or pits in the 

 interior; and with them, or in the immediate neighborhood, 

 the rude cutting implements of chert or obsidian which seem 

 to have been the highest manufacture in that direction 

 of the earlier races. In some of the old native ovens 

 or " kitchen middens," too, have been found great 

 quantities of the broken egg shells of the bird, 

 leading to the conclusion that the roasted Moa egg wad quite 

 as favorite and common an article of food as the bird itself. 

 One or two eggs have been secured in a fair state of preserva- 

 tion and sent to England ; it was noticeable in each case that 

 the same part at one end was missing, as if the contents had 

 been abstracted through the aperture. The average size of 

 the egg, as far as can be gathered, was about nine inches in 

 length by six inches in diameter. Of the appearance of the 

 bird itself we have no information from eye witnesses. I in- 

 close you Professor Owen's drawing of what it ought to be, 

 and no doubt he is pretty near the mark.. The Professor has 

 simply classified them under fifteen species, viz.: Dinornis our- 

 lus, D. geranoidea, D, didiformis, D. dromioides, J), rheides, 

 D. gracilis, D. gravis, D. casuarinus, D. crassus, D. elephant- 

 opus, D. strulhoiden, I). ingens, D, giganteus, D. robuslus, 

 and D. maximus. Of these D. eurius is the smallest, and 

 would probably stand about three feet high ; his average 

 length of femur is given as Bix inches ; tiba, eleven inches, 

 and metatarsus five inches. The other species as enumerated 

 are on a progressively increasing scale ; 1). manmus has been 

 found standing twelve feet high ; some of his average meas- 

 urements are given by Owen thus ; femur, eighteen inches 

 long ai»d averaging five inches in diameter ; tibia, thirty-nine 

 inches long by (say) seven inches in diameter ; metatarsus, > 



twenty-one inches long. Dr. Von Haast, the New Zealand 

 Government naturalist, is of the opinion that the Dinornis 

 in two groups, the first to be called the 

 VinorniQdda, their characteristics being the absence of the 

 hind toe, the bill narrow and pointed, and the metatarsus 

 comparatively long ; the second, which he names Falaptery- 

 gidm, includes those species which have a hind toe, whose bills 

 are obtuse and rounded, and in which the metatarsus is short. 

 It is, however, doubllul whether we have enough perfect 

 specimens to justify such a classification ; so I need not enu- 

 merate the species placed under each. 



Although there seem to be no definite statements in Maori 

 tradition that the Moa has been stem within the last century or 

 two, yet tliey have many and varied accounts of the habits of 

 the bird and the methods by which he was captured. How 

 Eat 1 these accounts represent the real occurrence, or to what 

 extent they have been evolved by poetic fancy from the mere 

 traditional' existence of the mighty hird, it is hard to say. 

 Whatever their value, some of the stories slate that great pub- 

 lic preparations ff«re made for the hunt ; that a whole village 

 would turn out and beat the scrub within a large circle, 

 gradually contracting and forcing their quarry toward 

 or pool in the river; aud, having thus rushed 

 him into deep water, they would come up in 

 cancels and easily dispatch him. Other accounts,, again, say 

 that hunters armed with long spears, made specially with 

 points that would easily break off, planted themselves along 

 the hush tracks frequented by the birds; others of the party 

 would then drive the prey along the tracks, where they would 

 receive the spears of perhaps a dozen or two of their assailants, 

 the points, breaking off as the hud hurried along through the 

 scrub, remained in the wounds, and so weakened him that 

 when run nut In the open ground he fell a comparatively easy 

 victim to the bolder and more skillful hunters. Another story 

 is to the effect that the men used to drive a strong stake into 



Skeletons of the Moa. 



the ground above the entrance of a cave known as the haunt 

 of the Moa, and hang thereto a strong rope of native flax 

 (Pkarmium teuax), with a running noose, into which the bird 

 would inevitably run his head on some of his exits or en- 

 trances, when, of course, he was easily disposed of. There 

 seems to be unanimity, at any rate, on the point of the timid, 

 lazy and sluggish character of the birds, except at certain 

 seasons, when they are said to have fought with great ferocity, 

 many being thus disabled and falling a prey to the natives. 

 One story asserts that they were so lazy and inert as to lie 

 down and allow themselves to be roasted to death in the bush 

 fires, and that their extinction is largely owing to the extra- 

 ordinary prevalence and extent of tires during one particularly 

 dry summer. Hence, too, the Maories have a proverb, "As 

 lazy as a Moa." It seems to be pretty well established that 

 they went about in pairs, and had but one chick with them. 

 Their habitat wa3, no doubt, in the bush, but I have myself 

 found the. little heaps of rounded pebbles from the crop which 

 indicate where one of these birds had died, along with frag- 

 ments of their bones, on some of the bare ridges of the South 

 Island, where now there is not a stick of timber within fifty 

 miles, but where, as the occasional charred logs show, there 

 grew at some remote time a luxuriant forest. 



On one or two occasions of late, a rumor was in circulation 

 that the Moa had been seen alive in some remote and inacces- 

 sible corner of the island, but his existence has never been 

 established, and there can be little doubt that he is totally ex- 

 tinct, Our principal museums, however, have some excellent 

 skeletons, and every now and then a new discovery is made 

 that adds lo the stock. The grand old bird has been immor- 

 talized, though somewhat irreverently, by^a bush poet, with 

 whose effusion 1 will conclude t 



" Wdo in the days of ancient fame, • 

 Before the ' Pattha- Maori '* came, 

 Kicked up his lively little game ? 

 The Moal 



" Who saw Mount Edon'st crater gush I 

 Who saw Ilia red hut lava ruBll ? 

 And then skedaddled In the LuisU, 

 The Hoa.l 



'• Who only laid a single egg? 

 Who had no wing, but only leg,1 

 Pronounce his fearlu laame, I Bag— 

 The Moal 



'• WhoiHul i , Iwya, 



As hens pick 00 n, urit.h tunpiug noise, 

 ClOStllg Cheir little dnsiy | iyi7 



ihe Mo* t 

 " Who aton 1 twelve fee',, without 1 1» hoot* ? 

 WhO collared d-nys and grubbed InrrootsT 

 Who didn't care lor mild r.hen n.s ? 

 Tne Moa. 



" Whose bonsa have nuzzled Mr. Owen 1 

 And bneu dismissed by Governor Bowen, 

 Wnosali, Indeed, there- was no knowing? 

 The Moa 1 



" Whoso stomach had a strong dlsestlon ? 

 Who') settle anon trie •rinti-e question,' 

 (A very powerful suggestion)? 



Bue Moa l 



" Then fill a goblet to the namo 

 Of that old cock of ancient fame, 

 Who's passed away and played Ids game, 

 Tne Moa I" 



f An extinct volcano in the Xo>Ui Is'tnti. 



"WHAT IS THOUGHT OF US. 



An Opinion Snr Gbnbris.— The following is a letter 

 which we must publish just as it comes to us. It is genuine 

 "home spun." We should Tike to go fishing with the writer . 



Dover, N. H , Jan. 19, 1879. 

 Mb. Editor and Co-ofbiutoks of Fobkst and Strkam : 



Tour noble elToris to make Forest and Stream a valuable journal 

 aud educator has been well carried out thus Jur, and It will be appre- 

 ciated and enjoyed by thinking persons who i end It. 



When we meet a man who loves the siudy of nature and is a true- 

 sportsman, we generally dud a gentleman and a whole soul. Only ones- 

 in a life of fifty-six years have I met two individuals— who belonged to- 

 an honored sporting club, the Oqnossoc Ang.ing Association, Indian 

 Rock, Lake Kangely, Mo.,— who Impressed me w.th the Idea (if thlB 

 theoiy was true, that "Whenever a child was born somebody dies, 

 aud the Boul or the dying man goes imo the child") that at. the time 

 When those two leather dealers of New York city wore born nobody 

 died. In an article, "True Sportsmen aud Sporting Literature,' 

 Forest and Stream, Jan. 9, wer.ad: " The gi eat trouble nowadays 

 Is the want of Judicious discrimination between a sporting man and a 

 sportsman. The lormer must, as a consefluence, be over lust to him- 

 self with the bottle ; must deal at the pool-room, and consequently visit 

 the gaming table. The latter must be either a painter or poet, a 

 thorough naturalist (Darwin's views excepted), must keep the Ten 

 CommandmentB, the Revised Statutes, aud thlriy-nlne articles of the 

 Episcopal Church." With due respect fur individual fallU aud convic- 

 tions, the gentleman will allowme to state that no thorough naturalists 

 of the nineteenth ci-ntury can afford to except this only rational theory 

 of development of our illustrious Darwin ; but men like Prof. Huxley 

 and others have accepted it. An English bishop said In an assembly ! 

 " Ladies and gentlemen, is it possible that the learned Prof. Huxley 

 can believe that we spring from a monkey ?" The Professor replied 

 "LadUsand gentlemen, if it was a matter of choice whether we spring 

 from a monkey or soinelhiug else it would be different, but science 

 deals in Investigations aud facts; but if It was, as the learned bishop 

 wants it, my choice to spring from a monlcey or from a bishop of the 

 Episcopal Church who can put his brains to no better use than to ridi- 

 cule soience and Its facts, 1 certainly should choose the monkey." 



The game and flshiDg laws of New Hampshire are good, but many 

 wish (with me) that the slaughter of striped bass in Exeter and South 

 New Matket rivers, which is now going on, would be stopped, and that 

 the laws were executed; but we rind It a sad fact that irrational,, 

 superannuated laws remain on the statute bonks, aud rational laws are 

 treated in the same way as two ministers of the gospel executed the tr 

 Sunday law when they were on tne Grand Lakes, Me., in June. They 

 requested the man who carried them over the lakes to bring them. 

 back to Princeton on Sunday. The man remonstrated and said, "You 

 gentlemen teach us not to woikoa Sunday." One of the- divines re- 

 plied: "If I prove 10 you that it is yonr duly to get us out of here, 

 where we are plagued by mosquitoes and black dies, will you do 

 it?" The man promised he would. "Now, you llnd In the Scripture, 

 'If thine ox or thine ass falls in'o a pit on the Sabbath get him out,' 

 and have you ever seen two bigger asses than we are to come here to 

 be all bitten up by those creatures?" The man found the confession 

 too stroDg ; he skipped that elastic law with those who pretend to exe- 

 cute it at home, and shipped them back. 



The Dtttmar powder la excellent, and all what Mr. Dlttmar clalma 

 for It, hut will he he so hind to explain why the dealers sella can 

 Which weighs eleven ounces, can and all, aud call It a pound ? Hopiug 

 ihatyou will receive a circulation of your valuable Journal to your full 

 satlsf action, I am yours tru I y , C, H , H. 



Cause and Effect. — An Ohio correspondent thus enumer- 

 ates the results which have followed his subscription to. 

 Foebst aud Stbeam some four years ago : 



"It caused me to buy Bogardus' book, to take the Forest anb> 

 STUKAir, and caused Its circulation to Increase a score, at least, by my 

 friends taking It, and has been the means of me buying one of Hola~ 

 bird's Bhootlng suits, aud one overcoat of G. W. Simmons, a line gun 

 of Nichols & Lefever, ten pounds of Dittuuir's powder, a uog collar or 

 Von Culen, SOD Vanity Fair cigarettes, anus aud ammunition of it. C 

 Squires for onr shooting club, a fly roil and tackle of Couroy & Blasett 

 a meerschaum pipe of Kaldenberg, a trolling spoon of Fish & 

 Simpson, a shell cleaner of Rouau, a pair of oil tanned moccasina of 

 Holbeiton, a hammock of McCoy £ Sanders, a pocket compass of 

 Williams 4 Co., a camp stool of E. W. Gourd, an auxiliary rifle barrel, 

 three line Gordon aud two Irish setters bought by myself aud friend, 

 besides tent, camp slove and other things too tedious lo mention, Now, 

 if my other friends have done so well for your advertisers, it must 

 have done something for their irade. Many of the above-named 

 articles I have long stood in need ol, and knew not whete to get mem, 

 and by reading the Forest and Stream I have learned to be a more 

 successful sportsman by learning the habits and haunts of game and 

 wild fowl, ins BUbject being fully written up by your many able cou 

 trlbutora from all parts of the country. The piscator has become 

 aware that he can realise his most saug-uluo expectations in ashing in 

 the v, 'ai.ers ol Mich., landing the beautiful grayling and trout with 

 wnleh her waters auonud. At the same time railroad companies and 

 hotel keepers are reaping a rich harvest from the sportsman. But the 

 sportsman doesn't think so much about that, but wants his fun and ex- 

 pects to pay handsomely for It. 

 Yours truly, j. w. 8." 



Moke Testimony.— We are gratified to add the followin 

 testimony to the hundreds of other letters which we have al- 

 ready printed and published : 



Geological Survey os Canaiu, Montreal, Feb. l, 1S79. 

 Editor Forest and Stream : 



In answer to the advertisement of my " Weathir Almanac " In your. 

 Columns, I have received orders for copies from nearly every quarter 

 of the United, atatss, and upon rseelps of these many ox ta« n»w»- 



