discovered in New Zealand . 
87 
direction, I soon came within sight of Wakapunake, the 
mountain celebrated as the residence of the only surviving 
Moa . As natives lived about its base among whom my 
route lay, I looked forward with no small degree of 
interest to the chance of obtaining some relics of the 
Moa in this locality : in this, however, I was disappointed. 
At the close of the second day’s travel we arrived at Te 
Reinga (a village situated at the foot of the mountain), 
where, as opportunity offered, I inquired of the natives 
relative to the Moa . They, in reply to my reiterated 
queries, said, that he lived there in the mountain, although 
they had never seen him ; still, the Moa bones were very 
commonly seen after floods occasioned by heavy rains, 
when they would be washed up on the banks of gravel in 
the sides of the rivers, and exposed to their view : at this 
time, however, they had not any by them. I offered large 
rewards for any that should be found hereafter, and which 
were to be taken to Mr. Williams at Poverty Bay. Here, 
as at Waiapu, no one person could be found who possessed 
the hardihood positively to assert that he had seen this 
Moa, although this neighbourhood had ever [been the 
dwelling-place of this tribe. The mountain, too, it ap¬ 
peared was by no means unknown to them; for during a 
war between themselves and the Urewera tribe, a few years 
ago, they had fled for refuge to their stronghold on the top 
of Wakapunake, where they had lived for sometime, and 
where many of their relatives eventually fell into the hands 
of the enemy, who starved them into a surrender, and 
took the place. Here, then, was still further proof (if 
proof were wanting) that no such colossal animal 
could possibly at this time be existing in this place. 
The spot, however, was well chosen for the fiction of 
such a creature’s residence—a huge table-topped and 
lofty mountain, covered with primeval forests of gloomy 
pines \ its brow singularly adorned with a horizontal 
