238 
THE GEOLOGY OF NEW ZEALAND. 
paratively recent period too, for their bones are found in only 
a partially fossilized state. To what then can we ascribe their 
extinction, but to a change of climate? Man has nothing to 
do with their destruction.* That they existed at a com¬ 
paratively recent period is proved by their bones. Native 
tradition also asserts it, as there are still songs of hunting the 
Moa extant. It is yet to be ascertained whether it is not 
still alive in the Middle Island.f 
The character and general features therefore of the Middle 
Island have undergone, and are still undergoing, a rapid change. 
As the mountain ranges become more and more elevated, the 
* It is singular that the old Natives affirm, since their early days there has 
been a wonderful decrease of those birds, which they regarded as their chief 
means of subsistence, such as the Kiwi, Weka, and Kakapo; though they were 
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. This is not to be attributed to anything 
connected with the coming of Europeans, but rather to some other cause— 
perhaps to change of climate. The European cat, dog, and rat, are all more 
recently introduced enemies, and great ones too; but, before their appearance, 
the natural supply had begun to decrease, so much so, that they were greatly 
pinched for food before the Europeans came, whose arrival was so opportune, 
that we may ascribe it justly to God’s good providence among other benefits 
to furnish fresh means of sustenance for the Aborigines of these Isles, when 
their own had so remarkably failed. 
f Mr. Meurant, employed by the Government as Native Interpreter, stated 
to me that in the latter end of 1823, he saw the flesh of the Moa in Molyneux 
harbour; since that period, he has seen feathers of the same bird in the 
Native’s hair. They were of a black or dark colour, with a purple edge, 
having quills like those of the Albatross in size, but much coarser. He saw 
a Moa bone which reached four inches above his hip from the ground, and as 
thick as his knee, with flesh and sinews upon it. The flesh looked like 
beef. The slaves who were from the interior, said that it was still to be found 
inland. The Natives told him that the one whose flesh he had seen was a dead 
one, which they had found accidentally, that they had often endeavoured to 
snare them but without success. A man named George Pauley, now living - in 
Foveaux Straits, told him he had seen the Moa, which he described as being 
an immense monster, standing about twenty feet high. He saw it near a lake 
in the interior. It ran from him and he also from it. He saw its footmarks 
before he came to the river Tairi, and the mountains. Thomas Chasseland, 
the man who interpreted for Meurant, was well acquainted with the Maori 
language. He also saw the flesh, and, at first, they thought it was human. 
The Dinornis may also be discovered in New Guinea and other islands in 
the same line to the north of New Zealand. 
