OCR Text |
Show 1894.] MR. J. T. LAST ON THE BONES OF MPYORNIS. 125 shells of more than one species, with a few fragments of iEpyornis-bones and a variety of vertebral bones, some of which must have belonged to other animals than those named above. All these were found between the grey marl and the limestone. The place abounds with fossils ; but one would be led to judge that the creatures had not died where the fossil remains are now found, but rather that they had died at a distance, and that the bones, being set free by decomposition of the body, had been carried down to their present positions by heavy rainfalls or other means. If this was really the case, it would account for the jumbled-up manner in which the fossils are found, and would also give a reason why w e did not find a skeleton intact. For nearly a year I made Manansua m y head-quarters, journeying into the country in different directions as opportunity occurred. By this means, and from native report, I was able to learn a great deal about the nature of the surrounding country. It seems, from what I saw, that a great deal of the country to the south and east of Manansua was formerly covered with a number of small lakes. These slowly became dry, from two causes-first by being gradually silted up from the surrounding higher ground, and also by the water, when the lakes were full, cutting its way out through the soft sandstone rocks, until a passage was formed which allowed the whole of it to escape. Crocodiles abounded in these lakes, as their descendants do in the lakes which remain. A small kind of Hippopotamus and a large Tortoise lived about the lakes and near country; these have left nothing but their fossilized bones to show that they once existed. By talking with the king and people about these fossil remains, I learnt that they were in no way confined to the Manansua district, but were to be found all over the country to the N.E. along the Sakamare Eiver-at Ilunti, more north, and beyond in the Bara country, still farther north. In times of peace the Antinosi and Bara tribes interchange visits. Some men who had been there were working for me, and told m e they had seen the same kind of bones in the Bara country. The natives have no knowledge of the creatures of which these fossils are the remains, and if asked, generally say they are the bones of the Pang'ani, a mythical creature, in whose existence most of the Malagasy tribes firmly believe. From Befatiiri (an Antinosi king, living at Kiliarivo, to the N.W., and w h o m I met several times) I learnt that there are several bogs in his district, with fossil bones in them, and judging from the manner in which he described some of the long bones, I think it quite possible that some remains of the vEpyornis have been turned out by the natives whilst working in their gardens. He much wanted me to go and visit him at bis town, but I could not get the opportunity. Passing thence to the valley of the Taheza Eiver one comes to another piece of country where there are a number of silted-up lakes, n o w dry and used as rice-gardens. Here again, undoubtedly, |