Field. — On the Shifting of Sand-dunes. 563 



At the back of the hills a considerable extent of what was 

 good grass-land is now buried under sand. 



In the course of these changes many long-buried articles 

 have come to light. Not only have old kitchen-middens and 

 immense numbers of old cooking-stones been exposed, but at 

 one place what appeared to have been an ancient Maori ceme- 

 tery was laid bare, and a good many skulls were picked up and 

 carried away by visitors. Very many moa-bones — some broken 

 and bearing the traces of fire, and others forming more or less 

 perfect skeletons — have been exposed, as well as large numbers 

 of obsidian flakes, adzes (more or less perfectly finished) of 

 greenstone, chert, obsidian, and hoop-iron, intermixed with 

 other articles of unquestionably European origin. 



On my last visit, in October, 1890, I found the remains of 

 the largest moa I ever met with about a quarter of a mile 

 south of the river. I secured the pelvis, tarsi, and eleven of 

 the vertebras, and, had I had means of digging, should no doubt 

 have got the remainder of the leg-bones, as the remains ap- 

 peared to be on the spot where the bird had lain down and 

 died. The rib-bones were there, as well as fragments of the 

 skull, but all so broken by the trampling of men and animals 

 as not to be worth picking up. Alongside of the bones, how- 

 ever, and w'ithin a yard of them, I picked up two pieces of 

 hoop-iron, three of broken bottles, of which the surfaces are 

 dulled by the action of the sand, two bits of crockery of dif- 

 ferent patterns, and two of very old clay tobacco-pipe. Of 

 course it does not follow that these articles were contemporary 

 with the bird — they may have been dropped at a higher level, 

 and have sunk to that of the bones as the sand drifted away ; 

 but the frequency with which such things are found in company 

 with moa-bones in this part of the colony certainly seems to 

 bear out the uniform statement of the Maoris that the last of 

 these birds hereabouts were destroyed by means of firearms, 

 about the time when Christianity was introduced.''- I have 



* Shortly after this paper was read, the drifting-away of the sand 

 enabled my son and myself to get the lower leg-bones, and all those of 

 the feet. Close to the last, and at a slightly lower level, I found a small 

 hoop-iron adze, which seems to indicate that the bird must have been 

 alive after Captain Cook visited that locality, and probably after whalers 

 were located there. Later still, the further drifting-away of the sand 

 exposed, just above the site of the moa-bones, and at a higher level by 

 2ft. or 3ft., a fragment of a jaw of some large animal — apparently ox or 

 horse — containing three molar teeth. This fragment is actually more 

 decayed than the moa-bones, but this may arise from its having belonged 

 to a young animal. I also found some moa-bones in a neighbouring 

 kitchen-midden, which, from the straightness and cleanness of the 

 fractures, seem unquestionably to have been cut to pieces with a steel 

 weapon. The drifting of the sand seems far more rapid at Waikanae 

 than at Wanganui, owing, probably, to the winds being stronger so near 

 the narrow part of Cook Strait. 



