r about two thousand years, probably disappearing before any human
beings came to these islands. The Maori Indians can be traced back but
six or seven hundred years, and only very imperfectly during that
period. They are believed to have come from the islands lying in the
more northerly Pacific, presumably from the Sandwich or Hawaiian group.
Even the traditions of these natives fail to give us any account of
this gigantic bird while living; but its bones are found in various
sections of the country, principally in caves, and from these we must
"gather and surmise." What is left of the Moa to-day is quite sufficient
to form the greatest ornithological wonder in the world. The head of
this reconstructed skeleton in the Museum of Christchurch stands sixteen
feet from the ground, and its various proportions are all of a character
to harmonize with its remarkable height. This skeleton shows the
marvellous bird to have been, when standing upright, six feet taller
than the average full-grown camelopard. It belonged to the Titans who
dwelt upon the earth perhaps twenty or thirty thousand years ago, in the
period of the Mastodon and the Dodo. What Niagara is to ordinary
waterfalls, the Moa was to all the bird-tribe. It was a long time before
incredulous scientists could be induced to admit these interesting
facts, but the tangible evidence now existing in the Museum of this New
Zealand city is indisputable. This Museum owes its great excellence and
admirable scientific arrangement to Dr. Von Haast, the famous geologist
and early explorer of New Zealand, and forms a worthy monument to his
great fame in the world of science.

Some writers who have made a study of the subject are inclined to
believe that the Moa was still existing when the first of the Maoris
arrived in New Zealand; but this is only a supposition. It is an open
question, indeed, whether the Maoris were or were not the first human
beings to tread the soil of these islands. There is sufficient evidence
relating to this subject to whet the appetite of conjecture, but not to
satisfy it. In the Takiroa caves of the South Island in the Waitaki
Valley, and in a sheltered rocky glen or half cave near Canterbury,
there are certain crude rock-paintings which are a puzzle to savants.
These consist of figures representing men, birds, beasts, fishes,
snakes, altars, and weapons, crude indeed as to design, but
recognizable. The Maoris know nothing of their origin, and in the
pr