in the habit of swallowing stones to promote digestion, it may be concluded that they were herbivorous.

This is about as much as we know of the aspect and habits of this colossal Struthionide, whose apparent confinement to the small New Zealandic group is one of the most curious enigmas of its history. As it is extremely improbable that so gigantic a race was originally formed for so narrow a sphere, we are led to believe that New Zealand is but the remnant of a vast continent now whelmed under the waves of the Pacific.

When the group was first peopled by the Maories, about five hundred years ago, the Moas had already become excessively rare, and the last of them seem to have perished during the seventeenth century, though the New Zealanders believe that some of them still live in the remote and unfrequented wilds of their native land.

The bones of the various species of Moa have been partly found in morasses, partly in the beds of mountain torrents, but chiefly in various caves, which, no doubt, served the living animals as dwellings or places of refuge.

One of these caverns, called by the New Zealanders 'Te Anaoteatua,' or the Cave of the Spirit, was visited by Dr. Thomson, who describes it as very remarkable. It is situated in the tertiary, extremely cavernous, and undermined limestone mountain chain which extends along the west coast of the northern island, and whose picturesque beauties and natural curiosities are destined to occupy a conspicuous place in some future guide-book. Its entrance, resembling the gateway of an old castle, is concealed by a thick foliage of shrubs, and a dark green creeper adheres to the limestone rock and covers the opening. The cave extends in a tortuous direction underneath the hill for upwards of a mile, and consists of several different passages. From its roof and sides numerous stalactites are hanging, some of them six feet long, and composed of transparent calcareous spar, while others have a red tint. In that part of the cave which Dr. Thomson explored, there were three openings in the roof at different places, each from ten to fifteen feet in circumEdinburgh New Philosophical

'On the Moa Caves of New Zealand.' Journal, vol. lvi. 1854.

MOA CAVES OF NEW ZEALAND.

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ference, through which light was seen streaming in, one hundred and fifty feet above the head. Immediately below these openings there were heaps of wood and débris washed down from the surface; but these openings did not throw much light into the cave, so that even during the day it was perfectly dark. A subterranean stream of water runs through part of it, and then disappears under the rock.

Before the introduction of Christianity, this cave was held in the greatest terror by all New Zealanders, and no one would have ventured to enter it; but as Moa bones fetch a high price, the love of money at length conquered the superstitious fears of some Christian natives, and their boldness was rewarded by a tolerably rich harvest of bones, although their search was made in a very hasty and imperfect

manner.

Another cave situated in the same neighbourhood, and bearing the indigenous name of 'Te Anaotemoa' or the Cave of the Moa, did not enjoy the privilege of spiritual protection, and the Maories were in the habit of resorting to it to procure the skulls of the Moas, to keep the powder which they used for tattooing, and their long bones for the manufacture of fish-hooks, before they became acquainted with the use of iron.

The Cave of the Moa is in a limestone hill, with two openings, one towards the north-east and the other towards the south-west. The north-east opening has evidently been caused by the falling in of the roof, and is apparently of no great age; the south-west entrance is 14 feet high and 10 feet broad, and covered over with trees and bushes. The cave is 165 feet long, the greatest breadth 28 feet, and the height 60 feet. The roof is oval, and numerous stalactites drop gracefully from it, giving a cathedral-like effect to the whole. One part of the floor is covered over with calcareous spar, another part with a large deposit of soft stalagmites, and the part of the floor furthest distant from the south-west opening is covered with earth, limestones, and mud, which appear to have fallen down when the roof of the cave gave way, which now forms the north-east opening. It is under this earth, and the soft deposit of carbonate of lime, that the Moas' bones are found. Dr. Thomson got only four skulls

in this cave, and the scarcity of them was accounted for by their use in former days as powder-holders. There was

nothing to lead him to think that these bones had been deposited in the cave by water, for he found a remnant of almost every bone in the body, from the spine and the rings of the trachea down to the last bone of the toes. The bones belonged to the largest and also to the smaller species of Moas.

It would require several days' labour of many men to clear out the bottom of this cave properly, in order to see what bones it contains; but, as far as Dr. Thomson saw, there were no osseous remains of man or of any animals, except Moas, in it, nor any marks of fire, sculpture, nor figures of any kind on the walls of the cave.

There are, no doubt, many other grottoes and cavities containing Moas' bones in the islands, but they are carefully kept secret by the natives, as, on account of the high price paid for the bones, they may almost be regarded as small gold-mines.

CHAPTER XX.

SUBTERRANEAN RELICS OF PREHISTORIC MAN.

The Peat Mosses of Denmark-Shell Mounds-Swiss Lacustrine DwellingsAncient Mounds in the Valley of the Mississippi-The Caves in the Valley of the Meuse-Dr. Schmerling-Human Skulls in the Cave of Engis-Explorations of Sir Charles Lyell in the Cave of Engihoul-Caverns of Brixham-Caves of Gower-the Sepulchral Grotto of Aurignac-Flint Implements discovered in the Valley of the Somme-Gray's Inn Lane an ancient Hunting Ground for Mammoths.

A

MONG the various researches of geologists, there are perhaps none of a more general interest than those which relate to the antiquity of the human race. We would gladly know whether those strata and caves which contain so many relics of the past afford us also some insight into the primitive condition of man-some indication of the times when he first appeared upon the stage of life. Within the last years many discoveries have been made which have thrown light upon the subject, and proved that, though man, geologically speaking, is of recent origin, and probably the youngest born of creation, his ancestry still stretches back at least as far as that remote period when the huge Mammoth ranged over the north, when the cavern bear and the cavern hyena tenanted the excavations of our limestone hills, and the uncouth form of the rhinoceros brushed through the dense primeval forests of our land. In the following pages I intend briefly to point out some of the most interesting of these discoveries.

The peat-mosses of Denmark, varying in depth from ten to thirty feet, show their enormous antiquity by the changes which have taken place in the vegetation of the land since the first periods of their growth. At their lowest levels lie thick prostrate trunks of the Scotch fir, which must once

have grown on their margin, but which is not now, nor has ever been in historical times, a native of the Danish isles. At higher levels the pines disappear, and are supplanted by the sessile variety of the common oak, while still higher occurs the pedunculated variety of the same oak, now in its turn almost superseded by the common beech. It is impossible to calculate the number of ages needed to bring about these vast changes in the forest scenery of Denmark-a very moderate estimate carries them back seven thousand years— but at every depth in the peat, and under all these various trees, implements and other articles of human workmanship have been found, which show that, since the appearance of man, the fir and the oak have successively flourished and disappeared.

In addition to the peat-mosses, the Danish 'shell-mounds' throw some light on the prehistoric ages of that northern land. These mounds, or refuse-heaps,' consisting chiefly of thousands of cast-away shells of the oyster, cockle, and other molluscs of existing species, may be seen at certain points along the shores of nearly all the Danish islands. The shells are plentifully mixed up with the bones of various quadrupeds, birds, and fishes, which served as the food of the savages by whom the mounds were accumulated, while scattered all through them are rude implements of stone, horn, wood, and bone, with fragments of coarse pottery, mixed with charcoal and cinders, but never any implements of bronze or of iron. Similar refuse-heaps are found near the huts of many wild. nations of the present day, as, for instance, near the miserable wigwams of the Fuegians, who live chiefly upon limpets.

The most striking proof that the Danish refuse-heaps are very old is derived from the character of their imbedded shells. These, indeed, belong entirely to living species, but the common eatable oyster is now unknown in the brackish waters of the Baltic, and the eatable mussels, cockles, and periwinkles, which in the refuse-heaps are as large as those which grow in the open sea, now only attain a third of their natural size. Hence we may confidently infer that in the days when the savage inhabitants of the Danish coasts accumulated these heaps, the ocean must have had freer access than