Frevp.— Notes on some Ancient Aboriginal Caches near Wanganui. 228 
to notice the fact that there was in each instance only the ring of large 
stones, and that the rest of the articles, which would in such a case have 
covered the bottom of the excavation, were wanting. These rings, also, 
were in all these instances imperfect, and the contents had been disturbed 
and scattered, either by some one (possibly Mr. Roberts and his men) who 
had examined them, or by the horses, cattle, sheep, and pigs which feed on 
the adjacent ground, and no doubt constantly pass over the place. At one 
end of the space, however, we saw a perfect circle of stones, which had 
evidently been only recently exposed by the sand drifting from off them; 
and an examination of the contents of this threw quite a new light on the 
matter. There was certainly some charcoal in the hollow which was 
surrounded by the stones, just as there was on all the surrounding ground, 
and there were sundry pieces of Moa bone and some fish jaws at the bottom 
of the hole; but the principal contents were of a very different kind. They 
consisted of a very fair stone adze (of grey stone, like chalcedony); a number 
of pieces of the black basaltic stone of which many old adzes are made, 
some quite rough, others roughly chipped into shape, and some of them 
partially ground; what looked like a broken piece of the cutting edge of a 
very large adze, and had probably been used as a knife or scraper; two or 
three dozen flakes, mostly of obsidian, but some of tlie basaltic stone, and 
one of them a brownish red stone with a vitreous fracture; and several 
pieces of petrified wood: not what is frequently so called—wood, covered 
with a coating of limestone—but a substance similar to what is known as 
opalized wood, in which the whole substance of the wood has become 
changed into very hard stone, while at the same time its whole structure, 
both as regards grain and fibre is unaltered. There could, in fact, be no 
question that the articles were the domestic implements of some ancient 
savage, or savage family, which had been purposely deposited where we 
found them, and been surrounded with the ring of stones to mark the place. 
And I have no doubt that the other, now imperfect, rings originated in the 
same manner, and had similar contents. Such stone implements as I have 
mentioned would not be used as cooking stones, and they had not been 
subjected to the action of fire, and, moreover, there were no other stones in 
the hole. When, too, the food is removed from a hangi, the stones 
remain at the bottom till required to be re-heated, and any bones thrown 
into the hollow lie upon them. If, when the stones are taken out, the 
bones fell to the bottom, they would be in contact with the burning wood 
next used to heat the hangi, and would of course be calcined. In the 
deposit we found, the bones were below the stone articles, and yet were not 
in the least burned. The whole character of the deposits and their sur- 
roundings seem to me to raise important questions, to which I will refer 
