72 Transactions.—Miseellaneous. 
number of eggs must have been consumed as food ; and scattered through 
the ovens were rude chert implements, many of which bore signs of having 
been used. Most of these were fashioned like knives, and had been 
employed, no doubt, to cut the flesh and sinews of the bird. Some 
heavier implements were also found ; one of these was shaped like a cleaver, 
and had probably been used to break the large bones. In one oven the 
jaw of a young dog was discovered, mixed up with the bones and knives ; 
and from the same place were taken out several fragments of polished stone 
implements. A great deal of importance is to be attached to the discovery 
of the latter under such conditions, as, if it is conceded that the polished 
implements and the chert flakes were used by the same people, Dr. Haast’s 
theory of a paleolithic period and a neolithic period for New Zealand will 
have to be abandoned. The two different kinds of implements have, accord- 
ing to Dr. Haast, been found at the same spot, but he thinks that careful 
research will prove that they have not been used at the same time, nor by 
the same people. On the banks of the Little Rakaia, greenstone adzes and 
other polished Maori implements have been turned up by the plough; but 
he explains that it is known that the Maoris frequented the locality, on 
account of it being favourable fishing ground. In the case of the Puke-toi- 
toi Creek, however, it is unlikely that the natives ever visited the spot with 
any other object than that of Moa-hunting. There is a small volume of 
water in the creek, and there being no eels, there is nothing to attract the 
natives to the locality. Even such a common article of food as the Unto— 
a fresh water mollusc, which is to be met with in great quantities in the 
Taieri River, some four miles distant—does not inhabit the creek. It 
appears tolerably certain, therefore, that the Moa-hunters were the only 
people who ever visited this encampment, as no known means of subsist- 
ence is to be procured nearer than the Taieri River. I think it clearly 
established, from what I have stated, that the Moa-hunters used both 
polished and rudely-fashioned stone implements. The latter were easily 
made, and must have been of greater service in cutting the flesh of the 
Moa than any of the polished tools we know of. On the terrace above the 
ovens, and within about twenty yards of them, was found the place where 
those rude knives had evidently been manufactured. Traces of fire were 
to be seen, full of innumerable fragments of chert, and all among the fires 
broken stone knives could be picked up. A further examination of the 
debris of those fires, which had been kindled on the flat surface of the 
terrace, showed that numerous fragments of egg-shell were mixed up with 
the chips. This looked as if those who were watching the stones, which 
were being heated to be broken up for knives, had passed away the time by 
cooking omelettes. There can be no doubt that the egg of the Moa formed 
