SOLUTION OF THE MOA PROBLEM.

Evening Star, Issue 8118, 18 January 1890, Page 3 (Supplement)

SOLUTION OF THE MOA PROBLEM.

r Tuu° r^lD^ 1 and s P len( *id contention put forth by Mr Darton, of Lawrence, and pubhshed 111 the Evexinc: Star about a year ago, is hereby supported from a slightly different point of view, and with additional proof. All moa remains have been found on pliocene surfaces and in pliocene material in glacial and sub-glacial deposits, in unstratified clays, beneath moraine accumulations, in river drift and water scour. Remains so found are mostly disarticulated and distant from their original place of deposition. Whole skeletons have been met with on uplands where erosive action was not severe, if at all. Superficial earth movement is confined to hillsides and water ways. Skeletons and remains have also been found in unstratified clays that have been moved in the mass, as the skeleton found at Green Island some time ago and the eggshells from a street cutting at Waikouaiti, both now in Dunedin Museum. Other remains—as skin, feathers, aud bones—have been found in caves, caverns, and rocks, where they have not been disturbed and been hermetically sealed from the action of the atmosphere. Bones have occasionally been found near Maori ovens, and in the refuse heaps of old Maori encampments. It is inferred from the state in which bones are discovered that have been supposed to be in the hands of Maoris that they were broken for the purpose of extracting the marrow, as if they could not be broken for other objects and in other ways ; and as they find them burned, it is alleged they were cooked for their flesh. That the Maoris broke the bones for the marrow and cooked the flesh of the moa are pure fabrications, and are in keeping with other similar fictitious statements. Before we can accept such things we would need some proof. The fact is that few have given an accurate

account of what they have been privileged to witness. They have supposed that the bird was alive in the Maori age, and they concluded in accordance with that idea. If moa bones were found in large quantity it was thought that the birds had been slaughtered, or had died in that place. No doubt a place of slaughter would have many bones ; but there are more slaughtering agencies than one or two, and there are other reasons accounting for these remains,and their condition. If we would come tea proper conclusion, we must consider the surroundings and natural agencies that had been the means of placing the remains in the situations in which they have been discovered. If bones are found near or in an old Maori encampment, it is at once concluded that the Natives hunted the moas, and that these relics are the indications of a succoasful chase. It has been said, too, that the country was burned and the creatures, being surrounded by fire, were driven into corners and died in groups. If bones were found in a mossy hollow, the moas had gone thore to drink ; if it was a hot spring they went there to keep themselves warm. According to the character of Maori implements lying on the ground in the same gully, the birds

were neolithic or paleolithic. We do question if ever moa hones were found in Maori ovens along with fiintand stone implements, unless dropped there by accident It is to, be regretted that descriptions have been so loose, and fancies with respect to moa finds indulged in, to the detriment of exact knowledge. Moa bones have been associated with Maori ovens because they wore in the ground and on the ground when the ovens were dug. The bones and Maoris came together by the latter camping on the spot where the remains had been ages before A moa bone has been found with a mark—the mark was made with a stone, and so it is scientifically settled and published in books foi the enlightenment of the world that a stalwart Maori with a stone weapon struck the blow, as if a mark of the kind could be made in no other way, and as if the neighborhood of a Maori implement and a moa bone could not be otherwise aoeounted for The Maori and th.o woa, have been so long conjoined m tho minds of people—in tale and song, in speech and imagination—th.at it

seems almost a sacrilege to separate them. They have been thought of together as the Laplander and his reindeer, as the European and his domestic animals, as the gamekeeper or shepherd with his dog. The Maoris hp.ve a relation to the moa's reraajns but not to the moa itself. Being earlier on these islands than the European, the. Maori is nearer to the «y>a in time—that ia all. The Maoris have, had the honor of giving a name to the bird. Learned men have been spared th,e. privilege of inflicting some ancien.t, ba.rba.rous, Greek or Roman designation instead of an appellation from a modern, existing tongue. But the Maoris did not even live on the same horizon as the moa. Its gigantic proportions never met: their gaze. It is question able if they e vor had, any idea of the kind of creature to which the bones belonged which they often saw and handled in their through the primeval bsah. <.<M;oa" was the generic Maori nar&e for b*rd; or fowl, and when the subject was mentioned to them by early Europeans they naturally so entitled it. That they saw the bird, cooked its flesh, hunted it, or broke its bones for the sake of the marrow is dll an imagination. Further, there are no authenticated or extant traditions or songs among tb,e Maoris referring to the moa. Those t&at do exist are simply European inventions. The moa question, surrounded by credulous suppositions, inaccurate statement and fiction, with umall foundation in fact, has been palmed on the world as truth—(see Davenport Adam's •Primeval Life,' fetrie's 'Geography of New Zealand," and Page's « Geology'). It has also, been assumed, without a particle of evldenoe, that the moa's extinction was due to the human propensity for hantyag, and that the introduction of the dog and pig had hastened its end, ' ings abou,t <;ha date, of tho moa's lifetime an«,th,a reason of its disappearance. There are some facts certain enough and plain enough on this subject, but nothing has ever been shown to warrant the idea of its recent existence as a living animal on these islands. Its antiquity is beyond all tradition and song, It belongs to a period which has little connection, if any, with the humaa era, either historio or prehistoric. A fond lingering hope has only recently died out that it might still be found in some mountain recess of uaejytfored country. Travellers in the twilight ba the West coast and New Zea'vmd Alps have fancied that they saw ita stately figure on their horizon and heard. ?ta cry ; but the animal has been too long in its grave for its flitting ghost to bs. seen or the echo of its voice to be l\eeA'<i 5n the evening shadows.

Our solution, of the problem is simple, and ha 3 th?. merit of resting on indisputable, .existing, and sensible evidence, and may be. understood by anyone who chooses to. give attention to the deposits thst i& on the surface of the ground bpaeath hia feet in almost any part of the country. The existence of, the moa, its extinction and tlip, vicissitudes of its mysterious relics, belong; to the later chapters of tho sarthV history in our Southern Hemisphere. The" steps to be followed to reach "the home and; age oi the bird, Ke. in qne djrectioa, Having 30 auinan record, to guide* üb, oar must b& pursued in : the_ path jot. its, remains. We only know *>£ it by its memorials and their surroundV?§ 8 -. Qw appeal is to the earth and it?

deposits. The earth keeps its secrets for oar study, and opens its ponderous leaves to those who will read them. It is not needful to have any extensive acquaintance with geological questions to maßter this one. If we take a glance at our superficial deposits along the coast of Otago, and look at them in order as they come into view, beginning 'with the topmost and going backward in time, we shall find that they are as follows:

Ist. The black surface mould, a few inches thick, containing vegetable matter. Contemporaneous with the vegetable mould we have our present river flats, consisting of sands, loam, clay, and boulders. Our rivers have been running and forming their present channels while trees and grass and other vegetation were prepariug the soil of the Otago farmer. 2nd. This is a deposit of clay, varyg ing from a few inches to thirty feet in thickness, laid down by water and possessing horizontal stratifications. It lies on all our lower ridges, hillsides, and old flats. It forms the main upper deposit of all our East Coast valley terraces. It has often a considerable admixture of sand and gravel. As a soil it is cold and defective in ingredients. It is not a boulder clay, having been laid down in still water in estuaries during the last depression of the land ; but it may be called sub-glacial. 3rd. Another deposit underneath the pre! vious one is a series of layers of gravel, rough boulders, and sand. The composition is afl'ected by the character of the hills and rocks in the immediate neighborhood, and by the country over which the streams from the interior have run.

_ 4th. A fourth and earlier deposition, partially underlying the previous one, is of glacial origin. It differs from the others in being without the stratifications formed by water. It has been laid down in irregular masses, and has suffered considerable denudation. _ It was transported in large quantities in the bottom of moving ice from the adjoining hills. It is, therefore, a true glacial clay. As a proof of its glacial character, we have moraines, its contemporaries, on the same horiaon, although on different sub-strata. A great proportion of the remains of the moa is in this clay, and in clays and among sand and boulders, derived from it. Here, then, have we at length reached the burial mound of the regal biped. If we would know about this wingless Colossus it is here we must explore. Again, remains of the moa have been found on elevated table lands, among the surface mould, and in water courses from these elevations. These table lands formed the surface; at least they approximate the surface of the country during the moa period, and have remaiued comparatively unchanged, while other pot -j tions of the country have suffered enormous erosion. These elevated land surfaces were contemporary with the glacial debris piled up in our river basins. The question we here discuss can only be determined by the exploration of our recent deposits, and tie allocation of the clays and strata, according to their character and respective periods? It is, therefo.-e, necessary to search back through the indubitable records of the past ages, as these are manifested in the debris of those ages. The moa belonged to a different landscape from ours, when the world in this hemisphere had a different surface from what is now presented to, the eye. Prodigious alterations have taken plaoe since the moa lived and died on the old table-land. Its remains are oertainly found beneath glacial and in unstratitied deposits. Fixing the. age of these drifts, we determine the age of the moa. If the relics of the moa can be shown to exist in glacial clays, tho bird must have lived before, not subsequently to, these depositions. Any memorials found in the drifts of r.n era must have belonged to that era or to one preceding. As we therefore find them in glacial debria, we are warranted in concluding thai the creature was preglacial. These, therefore, are briefly the Btepa of our argument, which we believe to be incontestable..