440 
earth. On the contrary, I suppose that the last stragglers 
only, which escaped annihilation by physical changes and 
causes, may have continued to exist down to Man's first 
appearance on the British Isles; and as precisely similar 
views regarding the extinction of the Dinornis in New 
Zealand have been advocated by Dr. Mantell in one of his 
last communications to the Geological Society, I shall make 
no apology in concluding with his remarks when speak- 
ing of the Moa-beds : — Both these ossiferous deposits, 
though but of yesterday in geological history, are of immense 
antiquity in relation to the human inhabitants of the country. 
I believe that ages, ere the advent of the Maoris, New 
Zealand was densely peopled by the stupendous bipeds whose 
fossil remains are the sole indications of their former exist- 
ence. That the last of the species was exterminated by 
human agency, like the Dodo and Solitaire of the Mauritius, 
and the Gigantic Elk of Ireland, there can be no doubt; 
but, ere man began the work of destruction, it is not un- 
philosophical to assume that physical revolutions, inducing 
great changes in the relative distribution of the land and 
water in the South Pacific Ocean, may have so circumscribed 
the geographical limits of the Dinornis and Palapteryx, as to 
produce conditions that tended to diminish their numbers 
preparatory to their final annihilation. 
In the absence of James Nasmyth, Esq., C.E., of Patri- 
croft, Manchester, Mr. Durden read that gentleman's 
communication 
ON A NEW SYSTEM OF PUDDLING IRON BY STEAM. 
In order to render the object and nature of this invention 
more clearly understood, it will be as well to describe and 
explain the nature and object of the process in the Iron 
Manufacture termed " puddling," or the process whereby 
cast iron is converted into malleable iron. 
