The time that has elapsed since the Moa was seen. 287 



cessary to call to mind the difficulty there was in extirpating 

 wolves from England, to have a clear idea of the improba- 

 bility of the New Zealand race having caused the extinction 

 of the Moa. In a small island a race of large birds might 

 be easily extirpated, and we have some recent examples of 

 this ; but in New Zealand, I think, the New Zealanders 

 arrived in time to see the last of the large Moas die. 



The circumstance of Moas' bones having been found in 

 caves of more recent appearance than those found by Mr 

 Walter Mantell in the cooking-holes of the New Zealanders 

 at Waingongoro, would lead us to infer that some of the 

 Moas died in these caves after the advent of the New Zea- 

 landers. On asking a native of the cave district near Pa- 

 rianiwaniwa, what brought all these Moas' bones into caves, 

 he said, that long ago an eruption of Tongariro occurred, 

 which set fire to the country, and that the Moas fled to the 

 caves, and there perished. This tradition, although it may 

 be an exaggeration of some local conflagration, is of some 

 value, as shewing there were other causes which proved 

 destructive to the Moas in addition to human agency. At 

 Rotomarama, near the " cave of the spirit," one of my fellow- 

 travellers asked a well-read Christian native, what destroyed 

 all the Moas, and in reply he said it must have been the 

 great flood. The similarity of the words Noah and Moa 

 may have suggested this to his mind, but my friend got the 

 better of the argument, by asking him if it was not stated in 

 Scripture that Noah took a pair of every living creature with 

 him into the ark, before the flood ; the man looked puzzled, 

 and said " awa," — an exclamation the expressiveness of 

 which cannot be rendered into English, but means " I don't 

 know." 



There is another argument that the Moas died out, and 

 were not extirpated by man, in the circumstance of the ani- 

 mals being only found in New Zealand previous to their 

 extinction ; for rarity, according to Professor Lyell, precedes 

 the extinction of all species of plants and animals. It is appa- 

 rently a law of nature, that certain races of men, plants, and 

 animals, have a period of creation, increase, and decay. 

 May we not then state, and with some probability we are 



u2 



