Haast. — Researches in Sumner Moa Cave. 65 



portion of the cave, but gradually advancing towards the western side of the 

 cross trench of which section No. 2 (PI. I.) gives the details. 



Before reaching the trench at the spot marked C in the ground plan of the 

 cave (PL I), we came across a stand having been used for the stabling of a 

 horse, which had been dug into the shell-bed to a depth of several feet; in some 

 spots reaching actually down to the marine sands. 



This strange place for a stable was now mostly filled with horse-dung and 

 European kitchen middens, well trampled down, and above them, with a 

 layer of the excrements of cattle. 



Altogether, in this part of the cave, the beds had been much disturbed by 

 the cave-dwellers of European origin, so that in some instances Moa bones were 

 actually mixed up with bones of butcher's meat, lying now together in dis- 

 turbed shell beds. 



When advancing towards the point where the two main branches crossed 

 each other, the workmen observed, standing vertically in the sands, the re- 

 mains of two much decomposed piles, having a diameter of about eight inches, 

 and which apparently had been deprived of their bark by means of a smooth 

 stone implement, before having been placed in their present position. 



Evidently they had been burned to the ground before the lowest dirt bed 

 had been deposited, their charred ends standing scarcely above the level of 

 the marine sands. 



Of these piles, the first was observed 15 feet from the eastern wall of the 

 cave, and G feet behind the cross trench, the second opposite to the first on its 

 south-western side, and at a distance of 12 feet. 



They were found during my absence, and the men not thinking their 

 occurrence of sufficient interest, simply took them out— but noting their posi- 

 tion—instead of leaving them standing until I came down. They reported 

 that they had reached about 1 6 inches down into the sands. 



During my presence I caused new excavations to be made round the spot 

 where these piles were reported to have stood, but I could not get any other 

 object except portions of one of the piles, which on examination proved to be 

 rimu (Dacrydium cujyressinum). 



In the agglomeratic bed in this south-eastern portion of the cave we ob- 

 tained a number of Moa bones, of which portions of a skeleton of Euryapteryx 

 rheides were the most conspicuous. With the latter also the two rami of the 

 lower mandible were found, but not the least portion of the skull ; in fact, the 

 absence of any but very small fragments of skulls in all kitchen middens shows 

 that the brain of the Moa was considered a great delicacy. 



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