“No,” the professor replied, “there is not. But that is not a sufficient reason for saying that there never is going to be. Don’t forget the okapi! And the reason that I joined that expedition to Patagonia, Perry, was because one of the universities received what seemed like sure and accurate information about a still living ground-sloth. The matter was worth investigating. It might be true.”
“Then you think it is possible, still?”
“Quite possible, but unlikely. It is equally possible that there may still be a small herd of mammoth in the unexplored region west of Hudson’s Bay, but the reports that are brought in by travelers that they have seen a living mammoth, have never been verified.
“Many scientists believe that there still may be a few giant Moas in some of the interior regions of New Zealand, but the most diligent search has failed to find any.”
“Moas were like ostriches, only bigger, weren’t they, Uncle George?”
“A very great deal bigger, and much heavier in build. Yet, less than ten years ago, a missionary reported that he had knowledge of a feast at which the Maoris, or New Zealand natives, had found, killed, and eaten a giant Moa. There’s no doubt that the Maoris used to eat the Moa, as recently as a century or two ago. Their remains have been discovered in the charred remains of camp fires. Their bones are found in thousands, lying on the surface of the ground, hardly buried at all, showing how recently they became extinct.
“In one morass, abounding in warm springs, the bones of the Moa were found in enormous numbers, layer upon layer. They are there in thousands, and the only reason for that vast horde of skeletons is, that in some terribly cold winter, or, it may be, in one of the later cycles of the Ice Age, the giant birds made their way to the warm flowing springs in the hope that their feet, at least, might be safe from the biting frost, and, undoubtedly, the warm springs made the air less bitterly cold. But there was no food there, and they perished miserably from cold and want. That may have been a long time ago. Yet, Perry, only a few years ago, a Moa egg was found in a Maori grave, tightly clasped in the bony fingers of a skeleton. None the less, that doesn’t prove that it was a new-laid egg!”
“It certainly wasn’t when it was found, if it was in a grave,” ejaculated Perry.
“Exactly. Finding an egg is no proof of its age. For example, a perfect egg of the Aepyornis—the biggest egg in the world, six times as large as an ostrich egg—was found after a hurricane, bobbing serenely up and down on the waves near St. Augustine’s Bay.”
“How in the world do you suppose it got there?”