Geological Conclusions on New Zealand. 293 



stable and shifting crust of the earth, of which the opposite 

 end, after having been submerged, has again risen with its 

 accumulated deposits in North America, shewing in the 

 Connecticut sandstones the footmarks of the gigantic birds 

 which strode its surface before it sank ; and to surmise that 

 the intermediate body of the land wave along which the 

 Dinornis may have travelled to New Zealand has progres- 

 sively subsided, and now lies beneath the Pacific* 



This beautiful idea rests on Dr Deane's discovery, in 

 1843, of the footprints of many species of three-toed birds 

 of gigantic size, and of the imprints of others with four toes, 

 with the prints of twelve kinds of quadrupeds supposed to 

 belong to the Saurian, Chelonian, and Batrachian orders, in 

 the sandstone in Connecticut. There still lives, to give some 

 reality to the above in the secluded parts of South America, 

 a three- toed wingless bird ; but to give weight to Professor 

 Owen's idea, it would be requisite to discover the bones of 

 some of these birds and quadrupeds, for we have high autho- 

 rity for refusing to pin our faith to impressions without the 

 discovery of bones. 



To those who believe in the doctrine of specific centres, 

 or that every species of animals and plants on the surface of 

 the globe originated in a single birthplace, there will be no 

 difficulty in explaining how the Moa was confined to the 

 New Zealand group of islands. New Zealand (they would 

 say) was the centre of the creation of those numerous species 

 of wingless birds we find upon it, some of which are strange 

 to all other parts of the world. Perhaps New Zealand is 

 only a part of a great southern continent, the remainder of 

 which now lies at the bottom of the sea. Captain King, 

 R.N., states there are soundings from Cape Maria Vande- 

 man, in New Zealand, to Norfolk Island, and I have been 

 told by old New Zealand whalers that there are soundings 

 between New Zealand and the Chatham Islands. I cannot 

 bring myself to believe that the gigantic Moas were ever 

 hatched to live and die on the small spot of earth we now 

 call New Zealand. 



* Memoirs on the Dinornis, Part II. 



