It is therefore interesting to observe that the Moa-hunters were also chasing the latter, as proved by the remains of Dinornis robustus in the kitchen middens at the mouth of the cave.

In the sands at the western corner near its entrance, and where, as before observed, the agglomeratic deposit was missing, we found arranged in the sands another oven of considerable dimensions, used for a time by the Moa hunters, but afterwards abandoned, as it was filled and covered over with numerous Moa bones and their fragments, as well as with a considerable thickness of dirt and ashes.

The absence of ovens for cooking purposes, with the exception of the one previously alluded to occurring in the marine sands in the south-western portion, and of the second at the western entrance of the cave, together with a third—of which I shall speak presently—is a striking feature from which we can only conclude that the Moa-hunters cooked their food generally outside, and only occasionally eat it inside the cave, whilst the thick ash bed suggests that generally fires had been lighted, round which they sat or camped.

The third oven—several feet in diameter—was found about 10 feet from the entrance towards its middle part, having been prepared immediately after the agglomeratic bed had been deposited.

The Moa-hunters had broken through that latter deposit, and arranged the stones of their oven, taken mostly from the removed agglomerate in the marine sands thus laid open.

After having been used probably in a few instances only, it had become filled up with some of the agglomerate, previously disturbed for its excavation, not used for cooking purposes, with pieces of Moa bones and chips of timber (totara). Some of the latter were standing vertical, or at least at a high angle, whilst the chips amongst the dirt beds were found to be generally in a horizontal position.

This oven, with the kitchen middens filling it, was found to be covered by the never missing ash and dirt bed, the latter being continuous with the same deposit all round.

It is thus evident that this oven was excavated, used and filled again with the remnants of the meals, and of the usual occupations of the Moa-hunters before the ash and dirt bed was formed above the agglomerate. On the bottom of this oven a polished chisel of dark chert was discovered, 4.8 inches long by 1.51 inches broad, which in its general form resembles those which are doubtless of Maori manufacture, and which probably had been lost accidentally by being covered over. I obtained the information concerning this oven from the workmen, as I was unfortunately absent when the discovery was made,

but I think it can be accepted as reliable, as I cross-examined both men, and found their account to agree in every particular.

However, to strengthen this important point, on the 31st October, during my presence, the men picked up a portion of another polished adze, which fell out of the face of the agglomerate bed, just broken into, and when examining that face carefully I had the satisfaction to find the spot whence it had fallen out, so that there is no doubt but that it had been embedded in that agglomerate.

On the other hand, in the dirt bed near the entrance of the cave, generally close to the agglomerate, or when missing, sometimes in contact with the marine sands, several broken polished stone implements were excavated, together with pieces of gritty sandstone, some of which had been grooved during the process of sharpening.

As these fragments were found amongst the undisturbed kitchen middens of the Moa-hunters, there is not the least doubt that the same were possessed of polished stone implements, as well as of chipped flint tools, probably employing the former for the building of their dwellings, or manufacture of their canoes and wooden implements, whilst the latter were probably used for the chase or for cutting up and preparing their huge game for the oven and their meals. And as I shall show further on in the description of the numerous Moa ovens outside the cave, that similar polished stone implements were obtained in contact with Moa bones in undisturbed positions, I have to modify my former views in assuming that the Moa-hunters did not possess polished stone implements. Thus the excavations in and near the Moa-bone Point Cave fully confirm the observations concerning this point made, and published by Messrs. Mantell and Murison some years ago.

My former opinion was based upon the careful examination of hundreds of Moa-cooking ovens in the Rakaia encampment, where I obtained great quantities of chipped stone implements, some of them remarkably well shaped, amongst the kitchen middens of the Moa-hunters, but in the same deposits never any polished ones, and as the latter were mostly found in deep cćches, and the locality had been, according to Maori tradition, a favourite encampment of theirs, it was natural to be led to the conclusion that the few polished stone implements turned up here and there by the plough were like the câches of later (Maori) origin.

Section No. 6 gives the details of the beds, with the two ovens near the entrance of the cave.

Having determined that the beds were perfectly undisturbed, with the exception of the few cases already alluded to, it was of great importance to ascertain if, besides the stone implements found amongst the kitchen middens

of the Moa-hunters, no other objects of human workmanship were associated with them, in order to gain some more insight into the daily life of that primitive people.

However, if we consider that the cave was only occasionally frequented, we could not expect to find many objects of that nature, unless a fortunate accident had preserved to us some of their more valued utensils and ornaments; and although I was rather disappointed in that respect, the few objects found proved sufficiently that the Moa-hunters made their domestic tools neatly, as is generally the custom of primitive races.

In the dirt bed above the agglomerate in the anterior portion of the cave we obtained a needle 4.25 inches long by 0.20 inches broad, neatly finished, made of the humerus of a nelly (Ossifraga gigantea), and bodkin made of the distal portion of the tibia of the same bird, doubtless used for making holes through which the needle was passed afterwards; also, the canine tooth of a dog, with a hole bored through it at its base, worn without doubt as an ornament.

Amongst the pieces of wood collected from the lower beds, there is an apparatus for kindling fire, made of Carpodetus serratus (komaku), the fire to be obtained by rubbing the stick lengthwise on the other flat piece, several fragments of worked timber, firesticks, portions of spears and of canoes, the whole being so soft when excavated that it could easily be cut by the finger nail.

In appendix B a list of all the objects found is given, so that I need not particularise any other here.

The curious fact first observed at the Rakaia' encampment that none of the bones of the kitchen middens were gnawed by dogs, was also recognised in and near the cave, the smallest bones, without exception, being quite intact, except where cut or broken by human hands.

On the other hand, in the upper or shell beds, many of the bones appeared to have been gnawed by rats and a few by dogs.

In any case, the hypothesis first put forward in my paper on the Rakaia encampment, that the Moa-hunters chased the dog for food, without having it domesticated, certainly gains by these new observations in probability.

Amongst the smaller birds enumerated in the appendix, of which none are extinct, the presence of the bones of the kakapo (Stringops habroptilus) and of the large kiwi or roa (Apteryx australis) proves that these birds inhabited the peninsula and its neighbourhood from where they have now disappeared a long time. The only fish bones obtained in the lower beds belonged, mostly all, to the hapuku (Oligorus gigas).

The upper or shell beds also did not contain any objects of value, which

had belonged to the Maoris, although, as appendix C will show, a great number of things were found, either broken, become useless and thrown away, or accidentally dropped.

There were only a few pieces of broken polished stone inplements and a small piece of nephrite (greenstone) amongst them.

Concerning the existence of human bones in the lower beds, I may here add that portions of the right ramus of a lower jaw were found in the western side in the marine sands, about 6 inches below their surface, which might have been carried in by the surf, as near it the greater portion of the skeleton of a fur seal was excavated, which was doubtless brought in in the same manner. This lower jaw had belonged to a not quite full-grown man, the last molar just making its appearance; there was not the least sign of such bones either in the agglomerate nor in the ash and dirt bed above it, thus confirming similar observations made at the Rakaia encampment.

Amongst the bones collected in the Maori or shell beds were two pelvic bones belonging to a full grown male, and the ninth dorsal vertebra, not quite mature; all three were entire, and it is difficult to say how they may have been brought into the cave, but as there was through the whole thickness of these beds not the least sign of any broken human bone, it appears obvious that during all the time the shell-fish eaters were in occupation of the ground they were either not cannibals, or had such a peaceful existence, not being at war with neighbouring tribes, that they had no opportunity to indulge in that horrible practice.

However, looking at the long lapse of time during which the shell-fish eaters were in possession of the ground, and the insecurity of life to which savage tribes are exposed, I am inclined to believe that had they been cannibals, when the lower portions of the shell beds were formed, there would certainly be some evidence of it.

My friend, the Rev. J. W. Stack, at my request, has made inquiries amongst the older natives in Kaiapoi, and has been informed by them that the cave in question had been a common resort of their fishing parties some thirty years ago, so that some of the uppermost beds might have been formed by their refuse; but as cannibalism has been practised at least for several centuries in New Zealand, the absence of human bones in the shell beds certainly proves that they are of considerable antiquity, which is still more strengthened by the curious fact that amongst the hundreds of bones belonging to small birds, not a vestige of the weka (Ocydromus australis) has been met with, the same being the fact with the lower or Moa-hunter beds, a feature they have in common with those occurring in the Rakaia encampment.

As far back as the traditions of the Maoris go, allusion is made in their