6 6 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



of flint together with similar rough and primitive tools made of a hard and 

 compact dolerite found in situ close to the cave. 



In the lower beds also seal bones, a few phalanges from the flipper of a 

 small whale, and bones of birds still at present inhabiting New Zealand, were 



collected ; amongst the latter those of the spotted shag and small blue pen- 

 guin were most numerous. 



In the dirt and ash bed above the agglomerate, we obtained a number of 

 bones belonging both to our extinct and living vertebrate fauna, amongst them 

 the greater portion of the skeleton of a fur seal. In the shell beds above 

 numerous Maori remains were found, amongst them a few fernroot beaters, 

 made of wood, some canoe pins, flax-plaitings, all of which will be enumerated 

 in the appendix C. 



When examining first the two main trial trenches crossing each other at 

 right angles in the centre of the cave, the absence of the agglomeratic beds was 

 here noted by me, but I then thought that it might have been caused by the 

 roof having — in that part of the cave — accidentally possessed a greater 



solidity. 



In this surmise I was still more confirmed by finding that in those spots 

 the dirt and ash bed was much thicker, lying here directly upon the sands, so 

 that the former had a nearly uniform upper surface. 



However, when continuing the excavations across the cross ditch towards 

 the entrance of the cave, to the description of which I shall devote another 

 portion of this memoir, we found in the longitudinal trench a third pile, and 

 observed that in the space between these three points and another point, where, 

 however no remains of a pile were existing, forming an oblong square 36 feet 

 long by 12 feet wide, the agglomerate bed was entirely missing, and the in- 

 ference was therefore natural that at some time a human dwelling of some 



kind had been standing here. 



My first impression was that the cave dwellers, in order to protect them- 

 selves from the pieces of rock becoming loosened at intervals from the ceiling, 

 had built a strong roof, resting upon four corner piles, which, after the principal 

 fall of rocks ceased, had accidentally been burned to the ground, but on 

 closer examination it became clear to me that the time during which the 

 agglomeratic beds were formed was of such long duration that it is impossible 

 to assume such a frail construction having lasted so long. Moreover, one can 

 scarcely believe that a primitive race, and which evidently only at intervals 

 inhabited the cave before the agglomerate bed was deposited upon the marine 

 sands, should act with such forethought and care. 



There remains only one other explanation, which I advance with some 

 diffidence, namely, that the builder of the dwelling, whoever he may have been, 



