152 Transactions.—M iscellaneous. 
and who has devoted a considerable time to the study of these ethnological 
questions. : 
Returning from this digression to the Otokai Creek Islet, I may observ 
that it consists of mica schist, with numerous segregations of quartz, by 
which the rock has become so hardened that it has resisted successfully the 
fury of the surf breaking here against the coast. These rocks rise at an 
average of fifteen feet above high-water mark, and are covered by five to 
six feet of loess, above which about twelve inches of vegetable soil has accu- 
mulated. 
At the junction of the two last-mentioned beds, quite a thick layer of 
cores, implements, flakes, and chips exists, all manufactured from hard ba- 
saltic boulders, having been collected along the beach, derived from Cragg’s 
Hill and the other basaltic cones in the neighbourhood. This deposit is 
from three to six inches thick. 
Besides this manufactured material, some large flat boulders of basalt 
were lying amongst it, having doubtless been used as working tables by the ` 
savage artificers, while long, thin, and roundish boulders of mica schist, 
close to them, had evidently been employed as flaking-tools or fabricators. 
No signs of polished stone implements, nor of polishing material of any 
kind were discovered in the ditch, about two feet broad and thirty feet 
long, which I dug in that locality, in company with my friend, Mr. Robert 
Gillies, F.L.S., of Dunedin, whose hospitality and assistance I enjoyed last 
summer, during the time these excavations were undertaken. 
However, only a small portion of this ground was examined, and I have 
no doubt that a great deal of valuable information is still hidden from us in 
that spot. There is great probability that many, if not all the more perfect 
specimens in the form of adzes, were destined to be polished at a more pro- 
pitious season and in a more favourable locality. On the other hand, the 
form and finish of a number of knives, saws, drills, and spear-heads, suggest 
that they were used in this more primitive condition. Only a few shells 
and bones were mixed with these remnants of the stone manufactory, but 
immediately above them, and reaching to the roots of the luxuriant sward 
of grass covering the ground, and often to a thickness of six to eight inches, 
kitehen-middens had been deposited. 
They consist of bones of seals, dogs, and of a variety of birds and fishes 
of all sizes, even the smallest kinds having evidently been used as food. As 
stated in the beginning, not the least sign of Moa bones was met with. 
Amongst these kitchen-middens two portions of a human femur belonging to à 
young individual were found , the bone had evidently been broken when fresh. 
As there was not the least sign of any other human bone amongst the 
large amount of kitchen-middens exposed and examined, it would be prema- 
