McKav. — On Diaiomaceoiis Earth at Pakara'ka. 375 



were also left there by the feasters who ate the moa-eggs, 

 and they too were therefore contemporaneous with the moa. 



The figure of a dog carved out of wood was also found in 

 the cave. A good figure of it will be found in the Presi- 

 dent's paper" to which I have already referred. The Maori 

 dog must therefore also have been contemporaneous with 

 the moa and with the now non-indigenous (if not extinct) 

 Chenopis sumnarensis. 



The fishing family or families who ate the moa-eggs, and 

 who last occupied the Sumner cave, were, as far as the style 

 of their ornamentation and handiwork can decide for us, as 

 much Maoris as those wljo executed the ornamentation of 

 the objects and implements which are exhibited in our 

 museums, labelled "Maori;" and they were Maori, in contra- 

 distinction to a ruder people wdio have been named moa- 

 hunters, as is testified by their highly-executed and polished 

 greenstone work. 



How long ago it is since the Maori and the moa were living 

 together I have as yet elicited no evidence from the Sumner 

 cave explorations. Much still remains to be done in the 

 determination of the extensive osteological material obtained. 

 When this work has been accomplisJied some more light may 

 j)erhaps be thrown on the question of which this note forms 

 the subject. 



Art. XXXIX. — On a Deposit of Diatomaceous Earth at 

 Pakaraka, Bay of Islands, Auckland. 



By Alexandek McKay, F.G.S. 



[Bead before Uw Wellington Philosophical Society, 13th February, 1891.'\ 



Last March I examined the geology of the district surround- 

 ing Pakaraka, Bay of Islands, x\uckland, and in the course 

 of this work had an opportunity of examining a deposit of 

 diatomaceous earth about half a mile to the east of the resi- 

 dence of the Hon. Henry Williams. 



Of this I brought samples from the upjoer surface and from 

 about 1ft. below tlie surface of the deposit, which were sub- 

 mitted to Mr. Maskell, who found only recent species in the 

 samples from the upper part, and fossil forms only in the 

 samples taken at about 1ft. from the surface of the deposit. 

 Such being the i-esult of the examinations made by him, on 

 my describing the conditions under wdiich the deposit had 

 accumulated, by way of explanation of the facts Mr. Maskell 



* Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xxii., p. 70, pi. ii. 



