568 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



object of it is unknown : in fact, the only reasonable sugges- 

 tion that I have ever heard respecting it is that it may have 

 been formed by some early Christian convert as an emblem of 

 the Trinity. Whatever its purpose was, it is an article that I 

 could hardly have supposed it possible to form in such a 

 material, and indicates wonderful skill on the part of the 

 person who made it. If any similar article has been found 

 elsewhere, possibly the above description may lead to its being 

 mentioned, and its use ascertained. Possibly, too, the above 

 notes may elicit similar ones from persons in other parts of 

 the colony, and thus useful data may result. 



At the commencement of this paper I have referred to one 

 which I sent to Welhngton in 1876, describing some ancient 

 caches which the late Mr. M. V. Hodge and myself had ex- 

 amined on the top of the cliffs north of the Wanganui Eiver, 

 and the articles found in them. Among these were pieces of 

 silicified w^ood, for the existence of which I was unable to ac- 

 count, though, from the same substance having been met with 

 in company with stone tools elsewhere, it seemed evident that 

 the Maoris used it or valued it in some way. The late Mr. J. 

 White afterwards told me that it w^as obtained from silicifying 

 springs in the volcanic regions, inland, and was highly prized 

 by the Maoris, who used it for giving the final polish to green- 

 stone. He said they called it " whakaue " and " te ika a 

 Ngahue." When I visited the Terraces at Eotomahana, just 

 before they were destroyed, I found that the object called " the 

 boar's head " w-as actually the end of the trunk of a very large 

 silicified tree, which was being gradually enclosed in the sub- 

 stance of the White Terrace. 



Since 1876 I have several times heard of stone adzes and 

 other articles being picked up near where Mr. Hodge and my- 

 self found the caches, and of moa-bones and Maori implements 

 being found near the coast between the Wanganui and Wa- 

 ngaehu Elvers. Among these have been perfect skeletons of 

 moas, one of which — a small one — was put together by Mr. 

 Drew, who placed it in his museum. These bones are generally 

 so decayed that they will not bear rough handling, and, unless 

 secured soon after they are exposed by the drifting-away of 

 the sand which has covered them, they rapidly crumble away, 

 and are lost altogether. The only tolerably sound moa-bones 

 which I have ever seen have been found in the beds of streams. 

 Such bones are by no means rare ; but settlers fancy, from 

 their size, that they are those of cattle or horses, and so pay no 

 attention to them. If they were collected, I am sure that we 

 should soon have ample evidence that the latest moa survived 

 the introduction of steel weapons ; but the difficulty is to make 

 settlers aware of what they are, and so get them to interest 

 themselves in them. 



