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which, though low, rise steeply from the pool on three sides, are covered 

 with stunted trees, manuka predominating. The north-eastern shore in 

 one part rises barely a foot above the water, and then slopes down into a 

 gully, a continuation of the hollow in which the pool lies. The existence 

 of a pool in so unlikely a place — half-way up the summit-line of a steep 

 spur — is due to a low causeway crossing the bed of a shallow gully. The 

 head of the gully thus cut off forms the basin of the pool. From the north 

 and south rims of the basin the sides of the spur fall steeply away to 

 streams some hundreds of feet below. On the north-west side, behind the 

 observer, the summit-line of the spur falls away, steep, rocky, and bare, to 

 the Forks, about a mile distant. Eastward across the hollow the summit- 

 line of the spur rises steeply to the main ridge, which forms the sky-line, 

 more than a mile away. The spur's northward-facing slope is mineral 

 country, stony and barren, but the southern slope has been invaded by 

 beeches. 



The spur is composed mainly of much-disturbed serpentines, and of 

 rocks similar in appearance and composition to those of the Dun Mountain. 

 The surface is covered with masses of these rocks, some of them of great 

 size. For a short distance around the pool masses of argillite lie thickly 

 scattered. This is the stone which the Maoris have quarried for adzes and 

 other tools. When newly fractured it is black in colour, but it weathers 

 rapidly to a light grey. The boulders are of all sizes, and have all, without 

 exception, been tested as to quality either by fire or by the neolithic equiva- 

 lent of a quartering-hammer. 



About the base of every crag or boulder there lies a pile of flakes 

 detached from the parent stone, and left as useless. Around some the 

 earth appears to have been banked up so that the full heat of the fire might 

 play into the surface of the rock. In every direction lie broken pieces that 

 have probably been looked over and rejected. If the spur within a radius 

 of 200 yards of the pool were thoroughly cleared it would probably be 

 found that the whole surface is thickly covered with fractured argillite 

 boulders, spalls, rejects, and flakes. The best stone appears to have been 

 obtained from three special places. The first of these is along the northern 

 slope of the spur, below the pool. The second is the argillite crag on the 

 south-east of the pool, beside the terrace to be referred to later. The third, 

 and probably the chief source, is the argillite cliff that forms the southern 

 face of the hummock over which the track passes before reaching the pooL 

 This part of the spur is covered by beech bush, and so seems to have been 

 examined hardly at all by curio-hunters. In spite of the trees and the 

 thick carpet of leaves that now conceals all minor features, this is the most 

 interesting part of the manufactory at the present time. 



When, in the "forties," the late J. W. Barnicoat passed the pool as he 

 was following up the Native track into the Pelorus Valley he saw the ruins 

 of Maori whares.* The spot on which they stood does not appear to have 

 been recorded, but it can hardly have been elsewhere than on the terrace 

 above the pool on its eastern side. The whole of this terrace, part of which 

 is shown in fig. 1, Plate XII, is covered with a layer of flakes so thick that, 

 after the passage of a century, vegetation has grown over it scarcely at all. 

 On the slope from the terrace to the pool the flakes are also strewn thickly ; 

 but soil has been washed over them, and they are now overgrown by scrub. 



* This information was obtained from Mr. R. J. Kingsley, who had it from Mr. 

 Barnicoat. But no whares are marked on the map compiled from Barnicoat's traverse. 

 One is shown farther up the spur. 



