4648 THE ZooLocist—OcToBER, 1875. 
or shell beds, with such a distinct line of demarcation, goes far to 
prove that an enormous space of time must have elapsed since the 
Dinornis became extinct. Mr. Stack justly points out the im- 
portance of this fact in his communications to me, and thus the own 
traditions of the natives themselves, related in an unbiassed way, 
are certainly a confirmation of the views I ventured to express first 
in 1871, in respect to this question, and quite in opposition to the 
then generally accepted assumptions. 
Conclusion.— Although when enumerating in the foregoing notes 
the results obtained during the pursuit of the excavations, I have 
given already my views, formed from a consideration of the sequence 
of the beds of human origin, their age and peculiarities, ] think it 
will be useful if I offer, in conclusion, a short resumé of the work 
performed, contemplated as a whole. 
The excavations have shown that a nearly level floor of marine 
sands existed, resting upon the rocky bottom of the cave, these 
sands being four feet and a half above high-water mark at the 
entrance of the cave and gradually rising to eight feet near its 
termination. There is no evidence from which could be concluded 
when the big block at the entrance of the cave fell down from the 
roof to narrow the former so considerably, but I have no doubt that 
this took place before the sea had left the cave entirely, by being 
shut out by the boulder bank in front of the entrance, the crown of 
which rises sixteen feet above high-water mark. However, both 
the boulder bank and this rock at the entrance of the cave prevented 
the drift sands from entering and filling it, so that when the moa- 
hunters landed with their canoes in some of the nooks of the rocky 
shore in the vicinity they found a capital shelter in the cave, whilst 
the Peninsula, then an island, and the opposite shores of the main 
island offered them a fine hunting ground. 
It appears from the examination of the sea sands that the first 
visitors of the cave entered it only occasionally, and still more 
rarely used it as a cooking-place. This might haye taken place 
after the waves of the sea had been shut out from the cave by the 
formation of the boulder bank in front of it, probably assisted by a 
rise of the land, but it is possible that at exceptionally high tides 
the water still entered the cave, as some of the broken moa bones, 
and of the boulders of which the cooking-ovens in the south-western 
portion were formed, were imbedded nearly twelve inches deep in 
the sands, unless we assume that they might have been brought in 
