THE ZooLoGist—J uy, 1875. 4517 
13°64 feet above high water, taking the level of the surface for our 
line. An opening, which is about thirty feet broad by eight feet 
high, being, however, much narrowed by a huge rock, leads into 
the cave, of which I found the floor slightly sloping down. The 
cave itself consists of three compartments, of which the first 
possesses by far the greatest dimensions, running nearly due north 
and south, and being 102 feet long, 72 feet broad towards the 
middle, and about 24 feet high. From its termination, by a small 
passage a second cave is reached, which is 18 feet long, 14 feet 
wide, and about 11 feet high, its direction being north by west to 
south by east; at its southern end a small passage, 3 feet high by 
about 2°50 feet broad, leads into a third or inner chamber, which 
is 22 feet long, with an average width of 16 feet, and about 20 feet 
high, running again, like the principal cave, due north and south, 
its floor being about eight feet above high-water mark. My best 
thanks are due to Mr. T. Roberts, the present engineer of the 
Gladstone and Timaru Board of Works, who, at my request, has 
taken the necessary levels and surveyed the cave, the results of his 
labours being attached to this report. 
Contents of Cave.—An examination of the surface beds showed 
that the floor of the main cave was, in some localities, covered with 
the remains of European occupation, in many others by the ex- 
crements of goats and cattle, introduced into Canterbury by the 
Europeans in 1839; but that everywhere below them, when visible, 
portions of shells of mollusks were occurring, the same species as 
still inhabit the estuary close by, and had served as food to the 
natives of the islands visiting the cave in former times. Towards 
the end of the main cave these beds gradually thinned out and 
were mixed with each other, till, at the entrance to the second 
cave, marine sands, the former floor of the cave, reached the 
surface. 
So, proceeding with two labourers to the cave, I instructed them 
to dig two trenches, crossing each other at right angles, in the centre 
of the cave, till they reached what they considered the lowest part 
of the deposits due to human agency. On the 29th of September, 
when arriving early in the morning, the greater portion of that work 
had been accomplished, the workmen having reached a bed of 
agglomerate, which they considered the bottom of the cave, for our 
purpose, or at least reaching to the earliest beginning of human 
occupancy. Digging, by my direction, through this agglomerate 
SECOND SERIES—VOL, X. 2k 
