THE GEOLOGY OF NEW ZEALAND. 
457 
Another proof to be adduced in favour of this opinion is 
the Moa (Dinorms) , the gigantic ostrich of these islands ; 
the struthious race of birds exclusively belongs to a mild 
climate, a warmer one than that where the remains of the 
moa are now found ; formerly, not only were those birds 
numerous in the southern parts of the North Island, but 
also throughout the whole of the Middle Island ; the remains 
of the gigantic moa are seldom found without being inter- 
mingled with those of several different-sized species of the 
same family ; hence it is to be inferred that the climate was 
once suitable for them, since they abounded, at a compara- 
tively recent period their bones being found only partially 
fossilized ; their extinction seems to imply a change of climate 
no longer suitable to their existence.* 
The character and general features therefore of the Middle 
Island have undergone a great change ; as the mountain 
ranges became more an'd more elevated, the climate must 
have become proportionably refrigerated ; nor has this been 
the only change effected ; large tracts of level land have also 
been upheaved ; that this has already been the case to a con- 
siderable extent is evident from the extensive plains on the 
eastern side ; and that this is still going on is equally so. 
REMARKABLE BOULDERS AT WANGAPE, ON THE NORTH-WEST COAST. 
* It is singular that the old natives affirm, since their early days there has 
been a wonderful decrease of the birds which they regarded as their chief 
means of subsistence, such as the Kiwi, Weka, and Kakapo ; though formerly 
so abundant, that they could obtain them everywhere without difficulty, they are 
now so rare as seldom to be met with, and the Kakapo is all but extinct in the 
Northern Island. 
