4560 TuHeE ZooLocist—Auveust, 1875. 
deposit all round. Itis thus evident that this oven was excavated, 
used and filled again with the remnants of the meals, and of the 
usual occupations of the moa-hunters before the ash and dirt bed 
was formed above the agglomerate. On the bottom of this oven a 
polished chisel of dark chert was discovered 4°80 inches long by 
1°51 inches broad, which in its general form resembles those which 
are doubtless of Maori manufacture, and which probably had been 
lost accidentally by being covered over. I obtained the information 
concerning this oven from the workmen, as I was unfortunately 
absent when the discovery was made, but I think it can be accepted 
as reliable, as I cross-examined both men, and found their account 
to agree in every particular. However, to strengthen this important 
point, on the 3lst of October, during my presence, the men picked 
up a portion of another polished adze, which fell out of the face of 
the agglomerate bed, just broken into, and when examining that 
face carefully I had the satisfaction to find the spot whence it had 
fallen out, so that there is no doubt but that it had been embedded 
in that agglomerate. On the other hand, in the dirt bed near the 
entrance of the cave, generally close to the agglomerate, or when 
missing, sometimes in contact with the marine sands, several broken 
polished stone implements were excavated, together with pieces of 
gritty sandstone, some of which had been grooved during the pro- 
cess of sharpening. As these fragments were found amongst the 
undisturbed kitchen middens of the moa-hunters, there is not the 
least doubt tliat the same were possessed of polished stone imple- 
ments as well as of chipped flint tools, probably employing the 
former for the building of their dwellings or manufacture of their 
canoes and wooden implements, whilst the latter were probably 
used for the chase or for cutting up and preparing their huge game 
for the oven and their meals. And as J shall show further on—in 
the description of the usual moa-ovens outside the cave—that 
similar polished stone implements were obtained in contact with 
moa-bones in undisturbed positions, I have to modify my former 
views in assuming that the moa-hunters did not possess polished 
stone implements. Thus the excavations in and near the Moa-bone 
Point Cave fully confirm the observations concerning this point 
made, and published by Messrs. Mantell and Murison some years 
ago. My former opinion was based upon the careful examination 
of hundreds of moa-cooking ovens in the Rakaia encampment, 
where I obtained great quantities of chipped stone implements,— 
