discovered in New Zealand. 
95 
consider, first, the situation in which the hones are 
found ; and, second, any additional evidence which native 
tradition may be able to afford us. 
The Moa bones, as far as X have been able to ascertain, 
have hitherto been only found within the waters and 
channels of those rivers which disembogue into the 
Southern Ocean, between the East Cape and the south 
head of Hawkes’ Bay, on the east coast of the 
northern island of New Zealand, and, as I have before 
observed, they are only, when wanted, sought for after 
floods occasioned by heavy rains, when, on the subsiding 
of the waters, they are found deposited on the banks of 
gravel, &c. in the shallowest parts of the rivers. These 
rivers are, in several places, at a considerable depth 
below the present surface of the soil # , often possessing a 
great inclination, at once perceived by the rapidity of 
their waters. They all have more or less of a delta near 
their mouths, from a slight inspection of which it is 
known that their channels have, in those places at least, 
considerably changed. The rocks and strata in those 
localities indicate both secondary and tertiary forma¬ 
tions, consisting, the former of argillaceous schist, sand¬ 
stone, conglomerate, greensand, &c.; the latter, of clay, 
marl, calcareous tufa, sand, gravel, and alluvial deposits. 
The real depositum, however, of the Moa bones is not 
certainly known. For my own part, I am inclined to 
believe, from a consideration of the depths of the chan¬ 
nels of the rivers, and of the class and situation of the 
* The rivers at Waiapu and Turanga have high banks on either 
side, even where the country is a plain of rich alluvial deposit. Near 
Mangarutre, and also near Wataroa, (three days 7 journey inland from 
Poverty Bay) I descended the almost perpendicular banks of the 
river which falls into the Wairoa, where they were from SO to GO 
ieet in height. This height they apparently preserved as far as the 
e ye could trace them from the summits of the neighbouring hills, 
the Wairoa is a large river which disembogues into Hawkes’ Bay. 
