Fretp.— Notes on some Ancient Aboriginal Caches near Wanganui. 225 
at them at intervals (probably certain seasons), for some purpose such as 
fishing. The fish bones and stone sinker, and the fact that the enormous 
number of cooking stones and knives at some of them apparently indicated 
that they had been used by considerable bodies of people, seem to counten- 
ance this theory; and the very manner of the deposits also, to a certain 
extent supports it. It appeared to us as if each family, on leaving, had col- 
lected such of their implements which they did not care to carry with them, and 
covered them up in a hole, and put a ring of large stones around to mark 
the spot, so that they might at once find them again on their return. And 
we thought that the reason why they had not been again taken from the 
holes was that, before their owners visited the spot next season, the drifting 
of the sand had covered the places, so as to render their recovery impossible. 
It wil be observed that as the grinding of the stone adzes was effected by 
means of sand and water, the vicinity of sand-hills would offer greater 
facilities than other localities for the manufacture, and that hence the un- 
finished articles would be likely to be left behind, with a view to their com- 
pletion at a subsequent date. As such articles, too, had an appreciable 
value to their owners and the neighbours, I think that, in this case we may 
fairly presume that the tapu was a recognised institution when the articles 
were deposited, and that some ceremony, or incantation was used in making 
the deposit, in order to protect it from spoliation. I have very strong doubts, 
however, as to this being the true solution of the origin of these deposits. 
It is very unlikely that camps occupied for lengthened periods, such as the 
summer season, even for fishing purposes, would have been formed so close 
within the line of the sand-hills as to be enveloped in a cloud of sand when- 
ever there was any wind, and be liable to be overwhelmed and buried under 
the dunes as they advanced. Permanent camps, and indeed, almost any 
camps, too, would only be formed in close proximity to water, yet the first 
place we examined is fully a quarter of a mile from any accessible water, 
and all the others very much further—in some instances fully a mile. Even 
assuming that they were fishing camps, and that water for use at them was 
obtained from springs on the beach, yet, it is perfectly certain that when 
these deposits were formed the distance to such springs must have been 
enormously more than it has now become by reason of the wearing away of 
the cliffs, and it seems to follow that there must have been means of access 
to the beach which do not now exist, and which I see no reason for sup- 
posing existed at any such recent date as that at which I am inclined to 
fix the formation. There are no hollows down which tracks could have led 
to the shore from these points, and it does not seem reasonable to suppose 
that savages would scale cliffs 150 feet high ; still less, continually provide 
fresh means for scaling them as they wore away, when, within a distance of a 
cl 
