The Ufoa.

Otago Witness, Issue 2626, 13 July 1904, Page 89

The Ufoa.

TO THE EDITOIt.

Sis,— The purpose of scientific reseaich is truth. If in this discussion I advance anything not resting on assiued and-nell-consiclered grounds, I am worse than mad— l am false. A rew contos'i3.2t has appaared in the fiolc\ md as he assumes to be :i , geologist lie 15 or.txtkd to an answer. IJe coaoedes about all we contend i or— that mca, remains aie found m moraines. The iesb ol his paper is mainly contradiction, w-hifh is neither fact not argument, ,and his explanations aie fallacious to th-j 1 er% core.

r lhe i-apid dissolution of moa bones that have been entombed in ice lequirea to bo prov.-d I hava in. my possession the leg bone of a nan taken fio-m a lock an the water-phed bet\>"-*eij ■\V&il:cuMti and Upper laien. It v.-as jambeJl in a fissure, and the exposed sie'e wasor polished by moving ice as- it passed. A.!l that_ cour.t.y hss suffered severe'y horn ice erosion ; isolated rocks stand up all over the lccuhty like the nuns of ancient castles*. It is now coming 01 for half a centuiy \,hr:i i picked up a mca, bone on the heights near PigrGot. It is no different now from what it was whfin I took it v.p, and tied it :o i,iv saddle and brought it home. So fain*i n* ap"peaiance is concerned — if 110 p.ccitient iiapp.-i to it, — it may exist for centuries to rou->e; an-1 how many centuries it lay whe-ie found it would be hard to say. A nuniliei of roars t'go I rrathered on Tninai, from the lii^ of n Maori oven, seveial piet,oi of noa bon--s. They had km exposed 'o a 1 wuathers. Some of the pieces were charred. The ovens were' o der than European «-r-it!e-nieut; and although 1 have had the bones for many yeais, they tie apparently as woli preserved as when the Maoris Handled them.

Sir diaries Lyall jjlaceq beyoi.d dispute that man and the mammoth were contenipoiaiy, uy finding the remains of both iv glacial debris ; co: sequ.nt'y ira.n wr.s ante-glaciail. [ oJii't think 311301:0 will charge Sir Charles v.-ith madness. It is not a unai conclusion i liat the mammoth carcases recently found in Northern Siberia had their lifetime thousands of joais ago 111 p more genial climate than has since pievailed

Our immediate pis-t may be divided into thrcp grand, well-maikefli er?s. The fust ilrtroduced by the basaltic c-uHjurst, that ga T c us our East Coast mountain masses our eld \slkys, lignites, aaid living moa=. Thts vas the age of the' mammoth m the r>orthevi be>risplicie. It includes an immeasurable jbv c s of Imr.

The ve^zt import? nt era is repre-sevtad by our old rivei-bc<ds on m^inv of our lover ranges. At the adveht of the glacial cold thea-o riveis wcr.j fiozen, Oi'id tht whole country co- c)tci with an immeiise sheet of ice, in which tike large buds woie entombed.

Anothor era is represented! by t'Tininnl n ormnes that he along the bases of a "n,n!ji?r of our lulls ot a lower altitude than the dry chaiTels cf the old rivers. This eia yiov s the relaxation of the intense cold, the formation of 2ie\v nver courses, and the letiremant and cleparuire of the ice over our temperate zones. Their 1 is no confusKui of these period;, as they are cleaily manifested on the face of Xatuip. The three peuods i-re iL\ej,lecl on our eatern coast by a, denudation of 2(XK)ft, particulaily o\ er the area between Palnierston and Green Island, cut through the calcareous free9tou2, green=and=, conglomerates, and ccal seams dowi. into the schist. All our supeifici-il c..'\s s,nd bou'dets o\ er I^ew Zealand nic; moraine, except, peihr.ps, about the North Cape, where the spiut^ of the pneient Maoris tojk tneir departure to another world. There is moraimc metier eveiywhoio. If our kindly fucvv! "Old Fcspicker" wiU dig at Ins back door lie \v 11 find it: so are the clay and stones .it his fimU door It would' be difficult to find mw Ici'cs or other boues m aaiythirg else, except these winch had been in human hand I',1 ', or uhei--- .• tcp-cliessmo of screenings and asphalt had been l.ud. We have basalts in moraine, but 10 ba=;ti.ts overlj ing moraine. T^'e conclude, ti ciefoie. tha + the lg-neous age and the ice age ■veie very far apnit, Pi^d th?t between t'u 'ii the moa lived In glacul and po= f P 'ls( £■ 1 unips there wee nenher live mn, t^ nor a olcgjuc fi;es to burn them, and no lii.-l upheavcl, as imagiuetli. — I sin, etc , J . Can i -'uk

Rcslyn, July 6,