106 Transactions.—Miscellaneous. 
Only three or four bones of young moas were found. Moa egg-shell 
was not uncommon ; but Mr. Booth thinks that the whole quantity obtained 
would probably not make more than three or four eggs. Two moa bones 
were found, which, according to Mr. Booth, had been gnawed by dogs. A 
piece of skin of some animal was found at a depth of about two feet, in the 
sand. There was no shell bed over it. 
In some places near the south end of the hills, moa bones were more 
abundant deeper down than near the surface ; but this was not observed in 
other places. The moa bones were not in continuous layers like the shells, 
but in patches. Mr. Booth also noticed that the heads of the same species 
were always in one patch. Gizzard stones in small heaps were abundant 
It is also worthy of notice that no moa bones are found in any other 
locality in the neighbourhood, and none were found on the Bushy Park 
estate when it was first ploughed up. 
It is very difficult to give an opinion as to the age of these deposits. 
Twelve feet of blown sand would not necessarily take long to accumulate, 
neither would four feet of shell deposit round the ovens. Many of the 
shells still retain a considerable portion of their colouring matter ; but the 
greater number of them are white and friable. With the exception of the 
pelves, all of which were rotten, most of the moa bones were in a better 
state of preservation than the shells; but Mr. Booth remarks that “ the 
state of preservation in which the bones were found did not depend on their 
depth, nor the length of time they had been buried ; but altogether on the 
pureness of the sand in which they happened to lay. Whenever the sand was : 
discoloured with ashes, or any other matter, the bones were invariably 
rotten;”’ 
A stump of totara, probably part of an old eel-pa, was found fixed 
upright in the river bed below high-water mark, and, on being extracted, it 
showed that it had been dressed with stone adzes. This stump appears to 
have been about six feet long. At high-water mark it had rotted through, 
and the upper portion, two feet in length, was found covered by about a foot of 
sand. The lower portion, four feet in length, two feet of which were in the 
ground, is, however, perfectly sound. Mr. Booth also remarked that the 
lowest shell beds always rested on pure sand, without the slightest dis- 
colouration, and he,\ therefore, thinks that the first occupation of the spit 
was before any grass was growing on it. 
Dr. Haast has stated* that the land has sunk about three feet since the 
date of the first ovens; but a careful examination of the ground failed to 
corroborate his observations. No ovens were found as high as low-water 
mark, although scattered stones that had been used for cooking were found 
*“ Trans., N.Z. Inst.,” Vol. VIL, p. 93. 
