Skinner. — An Ancient Maori Stone-quarry . 327 



The western boundary of the quarrying area is marked by a large group 

 of boulders on the south slope below a point on the track some 500 yards 

 from the pool. The lower parts of these rocks have been fractured by fire, 

 but the quality of the stone is poor, and nothing further has been done. 

 About 200 yards farther on the true area begins, and artificial flakes at 

 once become plentiful. Beside the track is a small boulder which appears 

 to have been superheated by fire. It has been split into white and powdery 

 fragments. The stone-hewers naturally directed their efforts against the 

 lower edges of boulders when attacking them by fire. In many places, 

 notably at the crag by the flaking terrace, the earth appears to have been 

 built up close to the rock-edges, so that the glowing embers might be close 

 to the face of the stone. The use of fire in this way is the only possible 

 explanation of the fractured surfaces in places where there is not room to 

 swing a hammer-stone. Mr. Elsdon Best supplies me with the following 

 note regarding the process : "A very good (Maori) authority tells me that 

 a fierce fire was kept burning on the face of the rock until it became red 

 with heat. Water was then thrown on it. This caused the surface to 

 crack and split up into small, or comparatively small, pieces ; but the 

 rock underlying the shattered surface became not shattered, but merely 

 cracked in fairly large pieces. The shattered surface was loosened 

 and thrown away, then the underlying part was split open (koara) 

 and suitable pieces selected (uncracked pieces) for toki, &c. Surface rock 

 was always deemed inferior, and was not used. Interior stone was much 

 better for tools. The best stone of all was obtained from below the 

 surface of water." _ It will be noticed that fire is of no avail unless water 

 is applied. 



A second method of fracturing the rock is by means of a hammer-stone. 

 This would be effective in the case of small-sized boulders. In the case of 

 large masses of rock little could be done by hammers except surface-flaking, 

 unless the rock had been opened up by fire and water as already described. 

 But the large masses were sometimes attacked with hammer-stones and 

 without the help of fire. On the cliff already mentioned, some 20 ft. up 

 on the vertical face, and far beyond the reach of fire, some old-time stone- 

 knapper has been at work with a pebble hammer. He has done nothing 

 more, however, than remove the outer weathered coating. 



These two are the only methods of obtaining stone of which there are 

 any traces at the Rush Pool. No signs of cutting or sawing were observed 

 in any part of the quarry. 



The hammer-stones used at the quarry are, almost without exception, 

 water-worn granite pebbles brought from Mackay's Bluff or from the 

 Boulder Bank. They range in weight from a few ounces to half a hundred- 

 weight. Many of them have traces of the brown oxidized surface that 

 comes of exposure to salt water. The transport of the larger ones for many 

 miles over streams, through bush, and across a high saddle must have pre- 

 sented great difficulties. By the cliff-foot they are especially numerous, 

 and furnish the best proof of the long period over which the quarry must 

 have been worked. It would, I believe, be possible to collect some hun- 

 dreds of them. 



Any other material than granite seems to have been rarely used. Only 

 one hammer of quartz was observed. Rodingite, which is very similar in 

 appearance and physical properties to gabbro, and which occurs in the bed 

 of the Maitai, was not observed at all. This is singular, since gabbro was 

 extensively used in the form of hammers by the primitive flint-workers of 



